The deleted scenes are great, especially the two where Hart and Reich explain more of their backstories. The Reich one in particular really should have been included in the film, if only to explain why Reich has such hostility towards Boyd...to the point where he uses the last of his dying strength trying to choke Boyd to death.
On the DVD commentary, it's explained that the scenes were deleted simply for time and not content or anything else--the film had to be a strict 100 minutes for some reason.
Pretty sure the deleted scenes are on every DVD release, along with three commentary tracks (the deleted scenes have an optional commentary as well)...all the region 1 versions at least.
I'll have to dig my DVD out again. I'd be surprised if I missed them, but for the life of me I can't recall any expanded backstories. Thanks for the heads up though.