Rating: 
Summary: A classic tribute to America's early space program.....
Review: In a superb adaptation from Tom Wolfe's book, The Right Stuff is a dramatic and highly entertaining journey through America's early space program. Examining the roles of test pilots and continuing on to the recruitment and training of future astronauts, a nice historical perspective is given showing the triumphs and failures experienced by NASA during their race with the Soviets in attempting to be the first country to get men into space.Beyond supplying the usual dramatic Hollywood fare, The Right Stuff also spends ample time revealing honest insights into the lives and emotions of the seven Mercury astronauts and their families making the whole viewing experience even more intimate and realistic. At just over 3 hours in length, I have to give credit to the producers in that the movie never gets boring and doesn't lag during this whole time and there is a lasting appeal throughout the movie. Further praise is merited in the fact that the stellar cast and their acting performances are nothing short of outstanding. As to the DVD content itself, in comparison to the first release of this movie (it was a 2 sided disc needing to be flipped over during the middle of the movie along with no special features to speak of), this 2 disc special edition set is like a breath of fresh air. Disc one contains an all new digital transfer and remastered 5.1 soundtrack offering a terrific improvement. Disc two has over 3 hours of excellent bonus material to include a 90 minute biography on John Glenn, 3 documentaries, 13 additional scenes, an interactive space timeline with footage from NASA archives, and scene specific commentaries with cast and crew members. I highly recommended The Right Stuff to everyone and this special edition set would definitely be a welcome addition to any DVD collection anywhere.
Rating:
Summary: A CLASSIC
Review: It's great to finally see The Right Stuff appear on DVD as a special-edition. The sound and image quality is awesome, much better than the LD. This is one of the greatest achievements in film, depicting the birth of the space program. It's difficult to think of anything wrong with the production. The cast (many of whom at the time were not A-list caliber) is top notch, especially Ed Harris as John Glenn and Sam Shepard as Chuck Yeager. The beginning, which chronicles the breaking of the sound barrier, is excellent. One particular scene has Yeager staring down the X-1 while on horseback; almost as if two living ceatures are involved in duel. The Oscar-winning score by Bill Conti brings tears to my eyes every time, especially the breaking the sound barrier and the final coda, which ends at Gordo Cooper's historic orbit. Director Philip Kaufman (just look at his resume; what an incredible career, with Henry and June, Unbearable Lightness of Being and Quills among his films), brings a humanness and respect to his characters, and dots the script with bit of humor and tenderness as well. He depicts the Mercury astronauts as heroes, an aspect that unfortuantely has gone away. These men (and their wives) pushed the envelope to it's capacity, went to the top of the pyramid. We live in a time in which we no longer look up when a plane passes overhead, where, instead of real people risking their lives to further technology and science, our heroes are born out of comic books or the sports pages. The Right Stuff is truely a very special film! They don't make 'em like this anymore!
Rating: 
Summary: ROUSING TRIBUTE TO ASTRONAUTS A REAL CROWD PLEASER ON DVD
Review: "The Right Stuff" is a patriotic idealism of the space program. Through its trials and tribulations a troupe of men put themselves through a rigorous training routine to see if they have what it takes to make it into outer space. The film is full of wide-eyed optimism and flag waving get-up-and-go that really leaves you wanting to blast off from your living room.
Warner's DVD is a welcomed effort after the rather lack-luster handling of "Once Upon A Time In America". The over all image quality is smooth, with full, robust, saturated colors, deep blacks and wonderfully detailed background information. Flesh tones can appear a bit on the orange side at times but nothing that will detract from your viewing of this film. Edge enhancement and aliasing are kept to a bare minimum and pixelization is practically non-existant. The soundtrack remastering to 5.1 is an admirable effort. Though at times strident, over all dialogue is presented at a realistic listening level while sound effects, like the air plane's blasting off, is really gripping in its bass spread over all five channels of your home entertainment system. A nice job!
EXTRAS: Enough to make Sputnik jealous - documentaries, audio commentaries, trailers, interviews, a stills gallery and a retrospective on Scott Glenn. Bravo!
BOTTOM LINE: A great package of extra features, nice exterior packaging and a really great transfer make "The Right Stuff" the right DVD to add to your growing home video library!
Rating:
Summary: Classic film finally gets the right stuff on DVD
Review: An underappreciated American classic, The Right Stuff manages to be both a satire of American during the 60's and a appreciation of the American space program. This two disc set (the original film was broken up over two sides on DVD)has all the extras that this terrific film deserved the first time around: documentaries including a solid PBS program on John Glenn; a commentary by cast members/producers and director Phil Kaufman and deleted scenes. The only drawback to this deluxe edition is the commentaries. While most movies provide running commentaries, the combined commentary of all the particpants runs roughly a half hour. The Right Stuff is a stirring, powerful motion picture and, arguably, a much better motion picture than Apollo 13 which did get the kudos that The Right Stuff deserved. Although Kaufman occasionally paints the satire in very board terms, most of his observations are on target and funny as heck. What could have undermined the picture is actually its strength--the casting of the astronauts. All the actors from the talented Ed Harris to the underappreciated Dennis Quaid light up the screen whenever they're on. The actresses appearing as the astronauts wives don't get near enough screen time or the character development as the other actors. It's too bad as their contribution in their own way was just as important as their husbands. While they didn't brave the rigors of space training and hard vaccum, they did brave the unrelenting scrutiny of the media and every politician that wanted re-election. They also managed to hold their families together and support their men. In an era where a woman's role is much less defined, it's hard to appreciate what they did. Kaufman gets the tone of the script and direction right more times than not and one has a hard time imaginaing any other film director doing such a superb job. Wolfe's doorstop of a book had its own unique quirky view of history. Kaufman managed to integrate many of Wolfe's views with his own in this epic film. In many respects, Kaufman's film is a more fair balanced view of what occurred. In our jaded time where shuttle accidents and the potential for death has outweighed our old can do attitude, it's difficult to appreciate the difficult job these astronauts did in real life. Kaufman's film revisits a simpler time where heroism involved more than just being honest. The picture quality of the DVD is an improvement over the earlier edition. There's less compression problems and the fact that you don't have to flip over the disc is a big plus. The print used isn't flawless but it does look very good. I seem to recall the sound from the previous DVD and laserdisc editions to be a bit less tinny but that could just be me. Any film with an ensemble cast of Sam Shepard, Barbara Hershey, Ed Harris, Dennis Quaid, Jeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Shearer and Donald Moffit would be noteworthy for the talent of the performers involved. The fact that they had an intelligent, literate script to work with along with a director with a genuine vision of Wolfe's book is just icing on the cake.
Rating:
Summary: A great story about a great subject.
Review: This film is basically about the early American space program, from inception to the early Mercury space shots. It tells a great story, and tells it well. Most of the facts appear to be right on the money, although I thought that the film was pretty hard on Astronaut Gus Grissom. The film manages to tell several sides of this great story, from the courage of the early astronauts who flew unreliable, experimental craft, to the less heroic sides, such as the Life magazine contracts, the conflicts among the Original Seven astronauts, and the venality of Lyndon Johnson, who was nominally in charge of the program for a time. By the way, I thought Dennis Quaid as Gordo Cooper was just great. This is my favorite role for him--he was both hilarious and true to life. Much of the film's rather well-done humor revolved around Quaid, and he seemed to revel in it. I'm giving this one five stars even though it has a few flaws. There are a few inexplicable, draggy parts, such as the part about the Australian aborigines (which has nothing to do with anything as far as the film is concerned) and the Texas dance scene. These sorts of scenes are what cutting rooms are for. Minor quibbles. A great movie about a great subject. Honest, true to life, and funny. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: THE RIGHT STUFF? YOU'D BETTER BELIEVE IT!
Review: While the first DVD release of "The Right Stuff" featured an incredible digital transfer in both sound and picture quality, it lacked a good amount of extras. Now, Warner Bros. gives us what we deserve with this two-disc set, loaded with extras. This will truly be "The Right Stuff" to own! Movie Grade: A+
Rating:
Summary: Great movie-wait for better dvd
Review: For sheer cinematic entertainment, it's hard to beat the Right Stuff. It's entertaining because it's got a great story, terrific dialogue, fabulous acting, and one of our greatest directors at the helm. And it can be watched repeatedly and never wearied of. Shepard, Quaid, Harris, Glenn, Ward, Goldblum. Directed by Kaufmann. How could anyone ask for more. It's a crime that Kaufmann does not direct more films. When you think of Invasion of teh Body Snatchers; Unbearable Lightness of Being and this, it's shameful that he's not given more funds to realize his visions.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Film, Go See It
Review: This DVD is double sided and the movie is approximatly 3 hours long. Luckily it is in 2 parts so if you don't have 3 hours to watch it, each part is about an hour and a half. This movie is the best space movie I have ever seen. It is about the race to Mach 1 and the Space Race.
Rating:
Summary: AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
Review: THE RIGHT STUFF IS NOT A DOCUMENTARY! I repeat, it is NOT a documentary! Nor was it meant to be. So all of you NASA addicts just relax and enjoy. All cultures have a mythology - why can't we? Many of the surviving plays of the Greeks or Shakespeare's history plays use historical characters merely as a departure point to dramatize the human condition. The Right Stuff is a beautifully crafted piece of "American Mythology." There is Glory: John Glenn. There is humanity: Gordon Cooper. There is Honor without the reward of Glory: Chuck Yeager. And there is tragedy: Gus Grissom. And all of these layers are woven together beautifully - point and counterpoint by Tom Wolfe & Phillip Kaufman.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing, tedious, longgggg film.
Review: The reason this film cratered at the box office is----that it is not very good. The pacing is terrible, scenes drag on endlessly, and a whole lot of stuff could have been cut to make this a good movie. I hadn't seen this movie in a while, so I watched it again recently, and man, this is a much worse film than I remembered. Ed Harris is good as John Glenn, and his kindness to his wife and her stutter is touching, and the scene with LBJ is great. Also, all the Yeager scenes are very good with Sam Shepard. But-----that makes up maybe, 30% of the film.
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