[3] Investigative journalist James Montague, writing in the July 2014 issue of Esquire magazine, claimed that Marc Sinden spied for the British Government's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) during the filming of Clash of Loyalties in Iraq, after being made "an offer he couldn't refuse, appealing to his duty and his pride in Queen and Country."

For example, the 1981 film Al-Qadisiyya cost $15 million and reinforced "messages of Arab unity and to inflame popular support for Saddam Hussein".

[10] Saddam Hussein would fund $30-million into this historical epic, not only in "a vain attempt to stir up national feeling" but also to "link his Ba'ath party to the Iraqi revolutionaries who overturned British rule in 1920.

[7] Most of all, British talents were employed in key positions: James Bolam and Oliver Reed were to act, Ron Goodwin was to write the score, and Ken Buckle was the head stuntman.

The civilian planes had to fly through Iraqi airspace under the escort of military jets, and they had to land without lights to avoid a missile attack.

Upon arriving at the hotel in Baghdad for the first time, Sinden was greeted with Reed being hung by his ankle outside a window, with his own bodyguard shouting, "Do not say that again!"

However, offset, Reed would "drink whiskey by the bottle, force anybody that passed him into an impromptu arm-wrestle", and "show off recently taken Polaroids of himself" in sexual acts with his seventeen-year old girlfriend (later wife).

Actress Virginia Denham said the only thing that frightened her about filming the movie was Oliver Reed, whom she described as "a weapon of mass destruction".

[5] The film was the last one made to use the now banned "Running W" technique, invented by famed stuntman Yakima (Yak) Canutt, which was a method of bringing down a horse at the gallop by attaching a wire, anchored to the ground, to its fetlocks and so launching the rider forwards spectacularly at a designated point.

They desired the film to be "a way to immortalize the virtues of Iraq's fighting spirit against a seemingly superior foe," while Jameel wanted to emphasize the "clash of loyalties" not only between the Iraqis, but the British as well.

"[9] Many changes were indeed made to fit with the modern political climate: for example, the Sunni tribes were emphasized over the Shi'a, and Hussein's hometown of Tikrit was portrayed as a center of revolt when in fact no rising had happened there.

"[5] American journalist Jon Lee Anderson saw an old videotape copy in Iraq, and described Reed's demise, where he "flops around repeatedly like a hooked trout", as "one of the most badly acted death scenes in cinematic history".