Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

A screen-specific audio commentary by Reinert and Apollo 17 commander Eugene Cernan offers an excellent detailing of not only what you're seeing on screen but what exactly was transpiring in space. Their comments are well informed and interesting, even if Reinert admits to the footage not exactly being factual according to what they're talking about in the film. We also get a brand-new documentary entitled An Accidental Gift: The Making of For All Mankind, which takes a comprehensive look at everything that went into making the film what it eventually became.

A featurette showcasing paintings by astronaut Alan Bean is also provided, but if that were not enough, Bean offers optional commentary describing the inspiration of each of his works. While I was expecting this to be a real quickie type still frame feature, his comments can go on for several minutes and provides even more detail about the space program that only he and a few select others have even experienced.

Shorter supplements offered include a large sampling of historic NASA audio highlights. They start with the historic launch countdown from Freedom 7 and end with Cernan's final words on the moon with many other famous quotes in between. Also of interest in this collection is a set of interviews with fifteen Apollo astronaunts, as well as a nifty trivia track: During the program, you can turn on the subtitles to provide the identification of all the astronauts and mission control members on screen at any given time. With so many people involved, this is a great feature to keep track of them all.

Final Thoughts

Criterion does it again: For All Mankind on Blu-ray Disc makes one wish that the company would just go ahead and remaster all their catalog titles ASAP. Video/audio quality is increased dramatically from DVD to BD, and the new documentary included here (as well as the film's first DVD's goodies) makes this one a true gem. Highly recommended.