I’ve only seen 2 of these versions, but I’m quite sure that the scene of Bob Dylan with the cans is in all 6.

If the VHS tape you saw was actually from 1985 then it was the theatrical version, unless it was taped off network TV and edited for sex and violence, in which case I guess it was the Television version, which is the least seen and least important.

Looking at it again, the explanation I posted from Reddit is unclear, since it refers to “The First Preview Version” and “the Second Preview Version,” which is confusing because what they call the “First” version was made second, but is only being commercially released now for the first time.

Taking what happened when the movie was made for granted, in an ideal world there should only be three versions (or 4, if you just accept the TV version for what it is).

Basically, what happened was Peckinpah was very unhappy with the theatrical version. He had an edit that he liked much better, although that version wasn’t really done either. He kept that version and screened it for private audiences many times, and its existence became well known.

Then they made some bastard version for network TV that had some scenes not in the theatrical version, just to make the movie longer because they cut so much out of it to censor it for TV.

Then in 1988 the studio tried to release the version Peckinpah had been screening (he was dead by now, if you didn’t remember), but oops, they had physically cut stuff out of their copy to use it to make the TV version, and they didn’t realize it at the time. I think that after 1988, this was the only version they continued to put out on VHS, although the theatrical version had come out before that.

In 2005, when the movie came out on DVD, they tried to do Peckinpah’s memory right by releasing his cut and using the best available information to make a final cut of the film. But oops, they fucked up on both counts: they released the 1988 version instead of restoring the scenes they left out the first time (and that couldn’t have been hard to do), and the people who made the new version knew it wasn’t the best shot they could take at a final cut, but they weren’t given the money and time they needed to make the version they wanted (they were basically allowed to choose existing scenes from the existing versions of the film, but not to re-edit anything to create new versions of scenes). I think any version of the DVD package that anyone bought in region 1 after 2005 had both of these versions.

So Criterion is giving us:
-the theatrical version
-Peckinpah’s version without the stuff that was stupidly left out of the 1988 release
-the version they should have been allowed to make in 2005.

Of the other three versions:
-nobody needs to see the TV version. It’s only historically important because it’s the explanation for why the stuff was left out in 1988.
-nobody needs to watch the two versions that are already on DVD anymore, because they’re bastard versions of what Criterion is putting out (although they both have their on DVD commentary, so in that context there will still be reason to watch them).