There are actually three existing DVDs of Peter Jackson's 1994 Heavenly Creatures, but none seem to be worth the bother.

The Canadian version has been released by Alliance Atlantis under license from Buena Vista, and as it has a "budget" price-point, it's easily found on Canadian retail sites for less than $15, and even cheaper on eBay. Tere are two different release dates for this title, February 2000 and June 2001, but they appear identical, with a full-frame (1.33:1) transfer and no supplements. As Heavenly Creatures is a 2.35:1 film, such cropping is entirely unacceptable. Two additional discs have been released in Region 2.

A German version is also 1.33:1 and only offers dubbed German audio.

Far better is a French version that offers an anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer and both French and English audio - but unfortunately, the digital French subtitles cannot be disabled when the English track is selected. If that sounds silly to you, it does to me too, but it's likely this was part of the licensing agreement to make the disc less appealing to Region 1 audiences (note for the record: the forced subtitles theoretically could be overridden by disabling a DVD player's "User Prohibition" function in the firmware).

Also, both the German and French DVDs of Heavenly Creatures are PAL format, rather than North America's NTSC. If you're a North American resident, you will need a DVD player that is code-free or region-switchable, and that can convert the PAL signal. As for running times, both the Canadian and French DVD releases of Heavenly Creatures clock in at 99 minutes, which was the theatrical time in the U.S., Canada, and Australia. However, the German DVD runs for 104 minutes, which is just shy of the 108 minutes that Heavenly Creatures enjoyed theatrically in New Zealand. But that 104 minutes is for a pan-and-scan disc, so nothing is really ideal. Unless you have a Laserdisc player, that is — Miramax's May 1995 LD offers a 2.35:1 transfer with English audio, in the 99 minute cut, and we'd get our hands on that before looking at any of the above DVDs. (Heavenly Creatures has never been released on widescreen VHS.) Of course, this is all in the hands of Buena Vista/Miramax, and as with virtually all movies — particularly recent ones — a Region 1 DVD release will happen eventually.

At the moment a new release is coming: see www.amazon.com. As seen on the right, it carries the line 'uncut version'. But will it offer the 108-minute cut? On that I'm skeptical, as Peter Jackson reportedly prefers the 99-minute version.