Three questions.
1. Is this worth watching? 2. What is the run time of the original film? I have seen the times vary. 3. Which version is best?
share1. Absolutely. It's one of the most important movies in all history. It may be a little hard to comprehend in the first 45 minutes or so (I used this site to help me: http://www.filmsite.org/into.html) , but it then becomes better and better, and easier to follow.
2. The is no "original run time" since movies of this period were measured by the feet (because operators could run the movie at the speed they liked). So, it's between 2h47 and 3h30. (Lilian Gish said the first cut of the film was 8 hours long(!), but nobody saw that version in theaters).
3. Can't help you with that one. I only saw the Cohen restoration. It had a really good image quality, with a great Carl Davis score.