The following note appears in the beginning credits after Lalo Schrifrin: “Original Music Copyright © 1980 Fox Fanfare Music Inc.”
       A title card with the following statement appears at the end of the film: “Two years after Henry Brubaker was fired – 24 inmates, led by Richard ‘Dickie’ Coombes, brought suit against Wakefield Prison. The Court ruled that the treatment of prisoners at Wakefield was unconstitutional and ordered the prison be reformed or closed. The governor was not re-elected.”
       The following acknowledgments appear at the end of the film: “The Producers wish to thank the Ohio Film Bureau for its cooperation in the making of this film”; and “We wish to pay tribute to Richard Ward, who played ‘Abraham,’ for a lifetime of very special work.” Brubaker marked Ward’s last performance in a feature film before his death on 1 Jul 1979.
       While a 8 Jun 1979 HR article reported that producers Ted Mann and Ron Silverman spent nine years trying to get the film made, a 16 Jun 1980 NYT article put the development timeframe at more than ten years. The first script, written by Arthur Ross in 1970, was the true story of professor and penologist Tom Murton’s experiences as “superintendent of the Arkansas Tucker Prison Farm.” However, Arthur Penn passed on an offer to direct the project and directors George Roy Hill, Robert Wise, Mark Robson and Robert Mulligan rejected another script by W. D. Richter that fictionalized Murton’s story. Silverman’s interest kept the project afloat and in 1975, Richard Brooks expressed interest but went on to direct other films. In 1977, John Badham wanted to direct the film but was also distracted by other projects. Meanwhile, Richter achieved success with his screenplays for Slither (1973, see entry) and a remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978, see entry), and was commissioned to write a new Brubaker script. Paramount Pictures passed on the project, but then, Alan J. Pakula expressed interest in directing the film. However, Pakula had to finish other films first and Silverman did not want to wait so Stan Kamen, Pakula’s agent, gave the script to another client, Bob Rafelson.
       A 4 Sep 1978 Box article stated that the starring role had been offered to Paul Newman, who was unavailable, and twice to Jack Nicholson, who passed. The 8 Jun 1979 HR article stated when Stan Kamen became Redford’s agent in 1978, it was discovered that the actor had not yet seen the script. When offered $3 million for the role of "Brubaker," Redford signed on. Redford’s involvement secured the deal with Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp.
       According to production notes in AMPAS library files, casting agents contacted a branch of the Ohio Bureau of Employment Services, the state’s parole officials, and directors of rehabilitation centers for access to former inmates. The production received interest from 6,500 people for bit and extra parts. To achieve authenticity, miners, farm hands, doctors, lawyers, businessmen, and housewives were cast. In addition, retired prison guards were cast, many who had worked at the Junction City Farm Prison in Ohio, where the movie was filmed, as well as former convicts who had been incarcerated at the prison before it closed. The 8 Jun 1979 HR article reported that many of the ex-cons had served time for crimes such as armed robbery and murder. For a scene filmed at a lunch counter, actual customers, who were regulars, played themselves. It was noted in the Sep/Oct 1979 On Location article that although the use of a real prison was weighed during location scouting, the filmmakers considered that inmates without speaking parts might resent fellow inmates with lines, and that the prison population could grow to resent cast and crew members who could leave the grounds at the end of their work day.
       The Sep/Oct 1979 On Location article stated that Silverman wrote letters to film offices in thirty-seven states to search for a prison. On 9 Aug 1978, Var announced that principal photography would begin 13 Sep 1978 at a closed prison farm in central OH to ensure that a cornfield, an essential element of the story set during the summer, would be in bloom. Bob Rafelson had been hired to direct the $5 million-budgeted film.
       The 4 Sep 1978 Box article stated that the ongoing search for “a big name star” delayed the start of principal photography until 1 Nov. However, a 24 Apr 1979 Var brief reported that Rafelson had been fired by Twentieth Century-Fox executive Richard Berger after nine days of shooting because the production was five days behind schedule. According to a 20 Feb 1997 LAT article, Rafelson later admitted to grabbing Berger but denied Berger's claims that the physical altercation went any further. A 25 Apr 1979 LAT news item announced that Stuart Rosenberg would replace Rafelson as director on 30 Apr 1979 after a short hiatus in production. A 30 May 1980 DV article announced that principal photography was completed 21 Jul 1979 at an estimated cost of $7 million.
       Production notes stated that the film was shot at the closed Junction City Prison Farm, located fifty miles outside of Columbus, OH. The facility opened in 1904 and had originally used inmates to run its brick factory. During the height of its operation, it housed “upwards of 300 prisoners.” The On Location article stated the brick business became “a self-supporting agricultural prison farm.” By 1972, the facilities were converted to “a mental rehabilitation center for the criminally insane.” Rafelson had considered filming at a working prison, which would have defrayed some of the considerable cost of extras in the film. However, with a ten- to twelve-week schedule, the production would have had to adjust to the prison’s schedule and the logistics were determined too difficult.
       Production notes stated that the prison fields, bathrooms, offices, barracks and death row were all used in filming. Parts of the facility served as offices and dressing rooms, and a wardrobe department was established to outfit six hundred extras. Several areas were set up as departments for construction, sound, electrical, camera, set dressing and make up. During principal photography, mobile kitchens prepared meals for the cast and crew, who ate in the “old prison dining hall.”
       According to On Location, the crew “worked six days a week from February to March,” painting, tearing down walls and building “turrets, buttresses, battlements” on the prison’s exterior at a cost of $1 million to achieve “an almost Gothic look.” Special props provided by the Ohio Film Bureau to dress the sets included the “free use of period Coke bottles from a local vendor, 500 rusted prison beds, and a number of skeletons.” Art director J. Michael Riva instructed the make up artists to add “shades of gray” to “the pancake make-up for the winter part of the film.” Additionally, Riva had the costume department outfit the prisoners in winter grays and switched to a red and yellow palette for the spring and summer months. Director of photography Bruno Nuytten made faces look more pallid by using a blue filter.
       Reviews for the film were mixed. Critics from DV, LAT, and New West enjoyed the film and praised Redford’s scenes with Yaphet Kotto and a strong supporting cast, while conceding that the film’s theme of social justice would not have been made without Redford’s involvement. Charles Champlin of the LAT thought Redford’s performance was the best work he had done to that time. Others felt that Redford’s character was one-dimensional and unexceptional.
       W. D. Richter and Arthur Ross both received an Academy Award nomination for Writing (Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen).
       According to an article in the 23 May 1979 Var, Rafelson filed a “breach of contract and slander [law]suit against 20th Century-Fox over his firing,” and asked for damages of $10 million. Rafelson claimed that the studio had issued statements alluding to his professional incompetence and mental instability. Court papers also stated Rafelson wanted to collect the $500,000 salary he was owed for his services as director and $100,000 “in deferrals and a percentage of the profits.” According to the 20 Feb 1997 LAT article, Rafelson won the lawsuit.