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Too Many Editions--A brief guide I will try to guide you through the complex history of the different released editions of this famously zany film. Tracing this history is unnecessarily made more complex by Amazon's practice of posting reviews written for a particular edition of a film on the page of EVERY edition of that particular film that they carry. [Note: DVD edition release dates supplied in my review are from the information listed by Amazon at time of writing.] I will not be discussing the merits of the work itself (one of my favorites) but the qualities of its different incarnations and releases in the United States. In any case, this film was produced in 1975 for release in movie theaters. [I do not know if it was released only in England in 1975 or in North America as well.] I did not view the film in this original incarnation. Some time afterward (in the 1980's), it was released in VHS tape format, and I became very familiar with this edition. Although I came to love the movie in this format, I did notice that the picture and sound quality did not seem to be of a high standard--even for the 1970's. With the advent of DVD technology I eagerly awaited the DVD release of this film and was rewarded in the late 1990's with the [Amazon says September 7, 1999] release of the standard version DVD. While I was happy to have one of my favorite films finally on the more permanent medium of DVD, I must say that I was disappointed that there seemed to be little or no improvement in picture and sound quality over the VHS edition. But what are you going to do? A couple of years later I heard the rumor that the company that owned the rights to the film were in the process of cleaning up the film for a limited re-release in the theaters. This event did occur (and I again missed the showings in theaters), and the newly-restored edition was also released on October 23, 2001 in a two-disc DVD set called the Special Edition. THIS is the only edition you will ever need. The way the technicians have cleaned up the picture and sound is miraculous, and the second disc contains very interesting documentaries and background material. While I am thrilled with this edition, I am a bit miffed that I had to buy this film again on DVD. Why didn't they just do it right the first time? Why do corporations do this to the consumer? On top of that, now they release (on June 8, 2004) something called the Collector's Edition Boxed Set for a lot more money. I have not seen this edition, but it looks like the same thing as the previous (Special) edition two-disc set with only a paperback of the script and an "exclusive film cel senitype" thrown in. If these last two items are important to you for the increase in price, then go for it. But I don't see how they can justify this marketing gimmick. The full script is available at several online sites (use your search engine), and how many people are going to want an "exclusive film cel senitype?" Anyway, that's my take on the different versions. [Recap: If you want this film on DVD, I recommend the "Special Edition" two-disc set released in 2001 and not the previous or later editions.] Hope it was useful to you. Sorry for any errors. -stan -