The film was nearly canceled a week from the start of production due to the Cambodian government's refusal to import weapons props into the country. Producer and director Phil Blattenberger spent a week watching various contingencies fall through the cracks; in desperation, he moved the set locations to a Cambodian army base 60km outside of Phnom Penh, where he rented Vietnam-era weapons from the officers in charge of the base.
Point Man is the first original narrative Vietnam War film in American cinematic history to shoot on location in Vietnam. Several scenes (including flyover footage in the Huey helicopters) were shot in the Mekong Delta east of Ben Tre. The remainder of international production involved several weeks in Cambodia.
The bar scene features a mural of a red bull and accompanying text in Vietnamese. It translates to: "Leave the fear of red to horn beasts," and pays homage to an anti-war poster from the Rhode Island School of Design. Because the film is set in 1968 and the artwork was created in 1970, the bar's mural is anachronistic.
Though he had a background in television when he was cast, Point Man was lead actor Christopher Long's first feature film. He beat more than a thousand other auditions to earn the role of Casper.
One of the film's characters, Quan, is played by actor Joshua Dela Cruz, who would later gain national fame as the host of the Nick Jr. series "Blue's Clues & You!"