Is the new DVD worth buying?

I bought it yesterday (PeaceArch). I also have the previous release (Lions Gate). Here is what I found: although the new DVD says "Full Frame", it is in fact widescreen. BUT they clearly took the Full Frame version and croped it to make it widescreen. The colours in the new release are dull, not vibrant at all, and the definition is even worse (if possible) than the Lions Gate. On the plus side the PeaceArch release has a commentary, which is the reason I bought it in the first place. I'm in Montréal, so this could be different for US releases. Also something that bugged me a lot in the Lions Gate release: there is a scene missing with Nick Cave, near the end of the movie. I don't know why that is. But the scene is back on the PeaceArch release, although cropped for widescreen and with dull colours. So as far as I can tell, there's no clear winner here, and a perfect release is still to come. Why don't they do it right the first time? Oh yes, to sell the same movie several times, obviously. :-)

The new DVD deletes the narration at the beginning of film. I suppose someone was worried that the reference to the end of the 20th century would date the film.

You are kind of right and wrong. Yes, most cinema productions were filmed in 1.37: 1 or 2.39:1. Other ratios do exist but these were the most common. Up until the advent of TV 1.37:1 was the standard for cinema projection. With the advent of TV the movie companies started filming and projecting in wider formats as TV screens at the time could not show widescreen. Yes, many films were shot in 1.37:1 and projected as widescreen. This could be done by soft matting (literally covering the top and bottom) or using special lenses while filming that squeezed a widescreen shot onto a 1.37:1 film. Of course, the reverse would have to be done during projection. Where soft matting took place there are often things filmed (e.g. camera booms, unwanted landscape etc) that were included because the director knew these would not be shown projected image. Be careful when choosing the raw 1.37:1 as without soft matting you are seeing the film differently to the way it was intended to be shown. With the advent of video cameras and broadcasting the 1.33:1 format became standard and would fill the TV screen. Later high definition used 1.78:1. When media in this format seen on old TVs was used it would leave bars top and botoom so was not fullscreen. Of course nowadays nearly all TVs are 1.78:1 so a media in 1.78:1 will fill the TV screen so technically, yes it is full screen. Unfortunately the term fullscreen is useless now as you don't know whether the term is referring to a 1.33 or 1.78 TV. Best to use the actual ratios.