Wally Stephens: I've learned a very important lesson today, I'll never shop east of Beverly Hills.
General Joseph W. Stilwell: This isn't the state of California, it's a state of insanity.
Sergeant Frank Tree: If there's one thing I can't stand seeing, it's Americans fighting Americans.
Hollis P. Wood: [After seeing Captain von Kleinschmidt enter] Jesus Palomino, a Nazi. I knew it, you're all in cahoots. Well let me tell you something, Mr. Heinie Kraut, I fought your kind in the great war, and we kicked the living s**t out of you!
Sergeant Frank Tree: You know, this year wasn't *the* big year of the war, '41. I think the really big year is going to be 1942. General Joseph W. Stilwell: It's gonna be a long war.
Trivia:
Both John Wayne and Charlton Heston were offered the role of General Stilwell. Wayne phoned director Steven Spielberg, who had given him the script, and not only turned it down due to ill health but tried to get Spielberg to drop the project. Wayne felt it was unpatriotic and a slap in the face to WWII vets. Heston is thought to have turned it down for the same reasons.
Spielberg exposed one million feet of film over 247 shooting days.
The gas station where Captain Wild Bill Kelso (John Belushi) lands to refuel was the same one used in Steven Spielberg's movie Duel. Lucille Benson, who plays the gas station owner, appeared in Duel as the Snakerama owner at the same station.
The scene where Wild Bill Kelso slips and tumbles off of the wing of his airplane as he is about to take off was a real accident. John Belushi slipped as he was climbing into the plane. It was kept in the movie because it fit his character.
Credits Fun:
End credits feature scenes showing cast members screaming.
DVD Easter Eggs: (Hidden So You Don't See Anything You Don't Want To See)
Edition: Universal
Region: 1
Description: Isolated music score
From the disc’s main menu go to the 'Language Selection' and there select 'Spoken Language'. As one of the entries you will then see 'Isolated music score'. Select it and you will be able to enjoy John Williams’ fabulous score in its entirety.