Versions
The miniseries was originally broadcast in Australia on 10 TV Australia as three episodes on 5, 6 and 7 November 1989, each running two hours with commercials, for a complete running time of four-and-a-half hours. This version was also broadcast in the US on TBS in 1991 with a few minor edits of seconds at a time for content and language.
In 2000 it was released on DVD in the United Kingdom. Each episode was cut in half, creating six new episodes with three episodes on each of two discs. This version mistakenly left the subtitles off an important scene which is spoken in the Thai language.
The bootleg version, commonly available from Russia and other countries, cuts the series down to ninety minutes, only a third of its original length.
The DVD version released in Australia in 2005 presents the series in the original three parts, but has been cropped enormously for widescreen televisions, from 1.33:1 to 1.78:1, cutting off the top and bottom of the film. Because of this, the opening and closing credits had to be completely redone and the final shot of the film, which played under the closing credits of episode 3, has thus been omitted.
Read more about this topic: Bangkok Hilton
Famous quotes containing the word versions:
“The assumption must be that those who can see value only in tradition, or versions of it, deny man’s ability to adapt to changing circumstances.”
—Stephen Bayley (b. 1951)