The American release was of the actual movies not just 'movies' cut together form the TV series like other classic anime
Are you sure, I mean pertaining to the Sci-fi channel releases? I've been watching the fansub, and I've basicly seen a stretched version of what was shown on Sci-fi. I saw the same thing happen to Iria:Zeiram the Animation. They took the 6 episode series, and shortened it into a movie, which paraphrased what had happened, and leaving out some of the character development that occured in the full version.
In the case of GE999, I remember seeing the Pluto scene(episode) but not the one pertaining to the two-parter where Testuro was kidnapped by the woman living at the edge of the galaxy. And only -part of the episode involving the pirate who gave Tetsuro the gun. Or am I wrong, and that was the premise of the movies(at least the first and not "Adieu")?
Forgive me, I've only been into fansubs for a couple years, and haven't seen too many (most of the time groups were dropping or forgetting the ones I was watching--save for Bleach, which was liscenced).