Jim Brown insisted that someone as big or bigger than him be cast as the lead bad guy in the film in order to make his major confrontation with Glover at the end seem like a fair fight. This is why the hulking Ted Cassidy was cast as Glover.
The opening heist is shot in the same Baldwin Hills oil field location (near LAX) that was used as the Victory Motel site in L.A. Confidential (1997).
Unlike so many of the performers and creative personnel involved with the blaxploitation film genre, director Jonathan Kaplan said he wasn't ashamed of his work or participation. In fact, he was thrilled to be a part of it. It gave him a new arena in which to excel. He also got to work with the biggest stars of the day, like NFL football-player-turned-actor Jim Brown, who was white hot at the time Kaplan cast him in this film.
When asked what he told critics who say that blaxploitation films are filled with violence and negative black stereotypes, director Jonathan Kaplan said, "Well, I tried to make the blaxploitation films that I worked on more about class and less about race. I tried to make the world be black in my films rather than it just being black vs white. I thought that the pictures were more accurate if they were about good guys vs bad guys, not black guys vs white guys."