If you could provide me with some detail, I would like to know what the differences are between the different releases. I can understand maybe why the Japanese version might be different, but why there would have to be differences between the Australian, UK and American versions. As for the American, do you mean North American, or was it a release for the United States only? I am asking this only because it appears the On Demand movie from Telus may have been the Australian release as there were many screen credits to Australia.
***SPOILERS AHEAD ***
Well, the UK, Australian and Japanese version are the original UK cut. It was put together by the director Jonathan Teplitzky and producer Andy Paterson in Summer of 2013. The American (North American) cut was put together by Andy Paterson and the film's North American distributor, Harvey Weinstein, six months later.
As far as I understand it, there were a few things that affected the re-cut for North America. Since the American release was four months after it had been released in the UK and Australian Markets, it had the benefit of the feedback of the critical response in the UK and Australia (which criticized the pacing of the original cut and the "confusing" flashback structure).
The director wasn't involved, so the producer was able to make changes that he wanted to have done in the original version, but which he couldn't persuade the director to make. Harvey Weinstein, the distributor, wanted to make some changes to make it more accessible for Americans.
Finally, they were able to do some polishing to correct some of the mistakes (like re-dubs of some lines which had come out sounding harsh in the original film), because they had a bit of extra time and money to do a re-edit.
So what did they change? I've seen both versions a few times, but I haven't seen the UK version in a while, but this is what I recall. I'll try not to be
too specific.
1) the biggest change is the water boarding scene, which cuts away in the American version, but which stays within the the room in the UK version. I think the UK version works much better. There is a claustrophobic feeling in the UK version which isn't present in the American version, plus I don't think the cutaway works dramatically. (I found it a bit confusing.)
2) the radio broadcasts and dialogue understandably mention the Americans involvement in the Pacific much more than in the UK version
3) there is more screen time giving to a character in the POW camp ("Thorlby", I think)
4) there seem to be few domestic scenes in the American cut
5) the film opens with Young Eric walking confidently along a river beside a bridge (the Forth Bridge?)
What I see as problems corrected in the American version
1) Nagase's flashback to the liberation of the POW camp and his "I'm only an interpreter" scene starts out from the point of view of a prisoner looking through the bars of a bamboo cage in the UK version. Personally, I found this very confusing because all the flashbacks were Eric's up to that point, and the point of view was wrong. The American version starts this scene at the line-up of Japanese prisoners and the Australian officer 'reading them their rights'.
2) the scene in the tent where Eric is explaining the difficult of building a railway through the Jungle ("You need an army of slaves") to me was directionless in the UK cut. I thought it was the worse scene in the whole movie. The American cut fixes this scene
3) I think the reconciliation scene with Patti and Eric, when both are standing at the open door of the house on his return from Kanchanaburi is reedited. Maybe I'm wrong, but I remember this being a lot more powerful in the UK cut. I found it disconcerting in the original cut, because it was too powerful. It was like the movie ended there. Plus, in the UK version, the next scene is a very passive domestic that didn't work for me. The American version diffuses the power of the reunion and carry through to the return to Kanchanaburi for the final act much better, although the movie does seem to miss something because of that.
Overall, my impression is that the American cut seemed surprisingly relentless, while the UK cut was more emotional. I haven't done a side by side comparison, so I can really say if that is accurate, though.
Just to clarify, the American cut is the same one screened in Canada, so I'm sure that's the one on Telus. The film is an Australian UK co-production, with a lot of the financing coming from Australia, which is why there are so many Australian logos on the film.
