Production Companies Dune Films, MFP Munich Film Partners GmbH & Company I. Produktions KG, Paramount Pictures, Roe Productions KG, Seven Arts Productions
Production began in March 1999, with filming taking place in South Carolina, Morocco, northern Virginia, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles.
Director Friedkin and producer Zanuck previously worked together on "The Exorcist" and "The French Connection," but, Zanuck says, "Always in the past I had worked with him as a studio executive; I had never seen him actually filming. I had no idea he was as fast as he is, and I think that's because he's so well organized. It's a tight ship that he runs; he is a meticulous director, a perfectionist. He's also great with actors. He's very inventive and can take a little bit of business and make it a key element. I found working with him a wonderful experience."
Jackson adds, "Billy instills a lot of confidence in us as he's very open about letting us bring things to the moment. If he doesn't like it, he's brave enough to say, 'Well, that's a little too much,' or 'I need you to do this.' And that's helpful for me because I know that he has a vision for each moment that he's willing to share and explain."
To ensure that the film accurately portrays the way Marines conduct themselves both on and off the battlefield, the filmmakers turned to former Marine Captain Dale Dye for technical advice, a responsibility Dye has fulfilled on numerous films, ranging from "Forrest Gump" to "Saving Private Ryan." Under his command, the actors and extras underwent grueling military training in boot camp-like conditions, developing the close-knit camaraderie of real Marines along the way. One camp in South Carolina prepared the actors for the tactics and weaponry of the Vietnam War circa 1968, and their training in Morocco geared them for contemporary desert warfare.
For the Vietnam War sequences, Dye, himself a Vietnam combat veteran, did more than toughen the actors physically. "I had to reach inside their hearts and tell them what we were like in 1968 when we were 20 years old -- what our attitudes were, what seeing that war and that brutality did to us, what it felt like to go for long periods of having nothing and being exhausted all the time and being covered with jungle sores. I had to do this because anytime you lie on a screen, you've done a disservice to America's fighting men and the 58,000 Americans who fell in Vietnam, and I won't allow that."
In the course of filming, Jones said, "We met a lot of real Marines, and I've always admired them and what they do. I sincerely hope we serve them well with this picture."
As part of the training, actors only referred to each other by their character names and ranks. Jones and Jackson, who are young lieutenants in the Vietnam scenes, joined their Vietnam units a few days after the other men had already spent a few days together training and bonding in the field. Initially, the men purposely excluded Jones and Jackson from the camaraderie of the group, testing them the way battle-toughened grunts would test any untried, green officer assigned to lead them into life or death situations.
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