I bought the Catalyst Alliance version released in Thailand a year or so ago at a local mall here in Bangkok. The running time is 98.59 and based on what I've been able to find out online, seems to be fully uncut, with all the horse stuff cut from the UK version intact.

Xploited used to carry the Catalyst release (now out-of-stock) as an NTSC All-Zone DVD. Btw, this version is the Robert Aldrich cut, not the Burt Lancaster edit.

Anyway, DVD Compare lists the uncut PAL running time as 98.59, same as mine. The running time listed at IMDB is 105 minutes, but I've read that's about 2 minutes more than the film's actual length.

If the Catalyst release is NTSC, how can the running time be the same as the PAL disc? Could this be a PAL-to-NTSC conversion which hasn't been speed corrected, or am I way off base there?

Techies, Bueller, anyone...?

Could the Catalyst release be a bootleg? If so, it's quite possible that it was taken from a PAL source.

The Burt Lancaster and Robert Aldrich cuts have exactly the same running time (103 minutes). The easiest way to tell which version you have is to look at the beginning of the film: if it begins with a pre-credits sequence showing Ulzana leaving the reservation in the middle of the night, it's Aldrich's cut; if it is missing this sequence, it's Lancaster's cut.

Since it was released on DVD in Japan and elsewhere by Universal, it seems more than likely.

Brad - so the version on r1 and r2 DVD is the Lancaster version and the one previously on UK VHS is the Aldrich version?

I've always been confused about which is which.

Those looking for an uncut R2 version can always get the German DVD which is an English language print, has an English language track and no forced subtitles.

I don't actually have the UK DVD, but the US disc is Aldrich's cut. The BBC have screened Aldrich's cut many times, initially with some violence missing, but all the horsefalls intact, more recently with both violence and horsefalls missing. The old UK VHS release (on the CIC label) was of Lancaster's cut, minus the horsefalls.

Here's an article I wrote many years ago about the variant versions of Aldrich's films:

http://www.latrobe.edu.au/screeningthepast...600/bsfr10c.htm

Thanks Brad - I think it was the old MFB article that had confused me as i think that stated that the opening scene of the Indians leaving the reservation was in the Lancaster cut. This is in the DVD which, as you state, is the Aldrich cut (I have the German DVD which is uncut and is the Aldrich version).

The editing choices between the two versions are quite odd and i don't think anybody has ever come up with a satisfactory explanation for them.

The Japanese DVD features the director's cut. This was one of the first films that I'm aware of to get a Video Watchdog-type comparison of alternate versions, in a back-page article in MFB, after it was discovered the version screening on UK TV was different from the one released in cinemas (and maybe on video).