The film has been selected for preservation in the Film Archive of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
The movie has been described as being a "punk rock film noir".
Debut film of director Kathryn Bigelow who worked on the movie as a script supervisor. Biggelow's debut film as a director, The Loveless (1981), like this movie, was also set in the 1950s.
According to Director Marcus Reichert, when he embarked on making Union City, Blondie was virtually unknown in the United States. Heart of Glass became number one about half way through the shooting schedule.
Playing Larry Longacre in this movie, actor Everett McGill once said of this film: "Before Twin Peaks (1990) there was Union City (1980)".