Comment by Magic Marmalade:
Well this is a sticky one for physical media / home video...
...I found the original theatrical version on DVD the other week, and it's one of those: "Flip the disc" issues, where only a little over half the movie is on one side, with the remainder on the other side (1hr 38 on side one - 58 mins side two) - what a pain in the crack!
...And it gets worse:
A more recent issue has the whole movie on one side, but from this point on, only the "Director's cut" is available this way, and even - form what I can find - the blu ray etc. are "director's cuts" editions.
The director's cut, in my opinion, kills the dramatic impact of the movie, by disrupting the "flow" of the film, and only serves to make the film drag, spoiling all the, um... cinematic poetry of the experience.
So it seems the only way to get the theatrical version of the movie all in one go (on one side of any media format) is to seek out the original VHS, which is now a goal I've set myself.
(Sometimes, although you'd, on the whole, prefer the studio to butt out, and let the director give us the intended experience, I'm finding, ever more frequently, that actually, the studio / powers that be, are in the right to give the director a light metaphorical slap, when such requests are made, and say: "No! - you'll kill the thing!").