Trivia for
The Last Castle (2001)

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• The main score of the movie, composed by Jerry Goldsmith, was named "September 11th 2001", because it was recorded on that day. Also, the movie's posters were changed after 9/11 because they showed an American flag flying upside-down; a new poster was put up featuring faces of the cast.
  
  
• Winter and Yates are the names of two British chess champions.
  
  
• Robert Redford had trouble with his saluting at first; it took about 20 takes for him to do it right in the early scene where his character is, ironically, teaching Aguilar how to salute.
  
  

• When Irwin is punished by being forced to move a huge pile of rocks, Robert Redford was offered fake featherweight props, but he chose to carry actual rocks to make it more realistic.
  
  
• During filming breaks James Gandolfini often played chess, which was a theme throughout the movie. Robert Redford read a dictionary or tossed around a baseball or football.
  
  
• When Irwin tapes pictures of his grandchild on the wall of his cell, they are actually pictures of director Rod Lurie's son Hunter.
  
  
• Mark Ruffalo did all of his own stunts during the helicopter battle scene.
  
  
• Originally, Winter was supposed smoke cigars. James Gandolfini pleaded with Rod Lurie to drop the idea because he felt smoking cigars would remind audiences too much of Tony Soprano, his star-making role in "The Sopranos" (1999).
  
  
• Oliver Hirschbiegel was offered the opportunity to direct but he declined.
  
  
• In the opening minutes of the movie, Gandolfini's character, Colonel Winters, remarks "My God, they should be naming a base after him!", referring to Redford's Gen. Eugene Irwin. In fact, the US Army already has a Fort Irwin, located in the Mojave Desert in California, although it is named for Major General George LeRoy Irwin.
  
  

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