The audio transfer is in a linear PCM (24-bit) mono track in the original German language. There are no demonstrative effects with depth and the dialogue suffers equally on the original production roots. The score by Klaus Doldinger (Das Boot) is subtle with unremarkable moments. It is authentically flat but adequately supported by the uncompressed transfer. Criterion add optional English subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray disc

Extras include interviews from 1973 and 2015 with director Volker Schlöndorff. In the 48-minute 2015 interview, Schlöndorff discusses the production of Baal and working with Rainer Werner Fassbinder and his troupe of actors. This is an eye-opening interview that helps to shed light on the film, as well as the struggle to have it seen, ever since it was forbidden from being screened by Brecht's widow... until recently. In the earlier interview; on the occasion of Baal's premiere on French television on September 2, 1973, director Volker Schlöndorff recorded a discussion of his instinctual approach to developing the film, as well as its portrayal of art and Brechtian philosophy. There is a dozen minute interview with filmmaker and actor Margarethe von Trotta was conducted by the Criterion Collection in Munich in December 2017. Margarethe recalls many memories about working with Fassbinder. Criterion have also provided a 17 minute interview with film historian, Eric Rentschler. Eric is also the Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Germanic languages and literature at Harvard University. The interview is filled to the brim with interesting factoids regarding Schlöndorff, Fassbinder, Brecht's original version of the play, and this film in particular. Criterion filmed this interview in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in November 2017. Criterion have also provided a 16 minute conversation between actor Ethan Hawke and playwright Jonathan Marc Sherman. The two have previously collaborated on the 2013 stage production CLIVE, an adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's play Baal. This is a fun extra, with the two stressing that a successful production of Baal will not necessarily provoke love from its audience. Brecht's widow hated this film so much that she sentenced this film to be kept from the public, and the irony of her reaction to the film, is not lost on Hawke and Sherman. This conversation was filmed in New York by the Criterion Collection in November 2017. The package has a liner notes booklet with an essay by critic Dennis Lim.

This is bitter anti-establishment fodder that actually has a nostalgic, historical context in modern day viewing. It has misogyny, murder and misery. There is a fascinating angle to this that bears analysis. I was fluctuating through disinterest and disgust to curiosity and keen introspection into Fassbinder's performance. With plenty of supplements this demands investigation for fans of German late 60's (it was a 1969 production) cinema.