The reason certain copies of the film look more like 'real life' is that they were made from scans of the negative, and the actual, unbalanced colors of what was really on set are coming through.

Film prints are made from interpositives, which have the final color timing embedded into them. This is what you'd actually see in the movie theatre, not the negative's raw colors. Going back to the earliest generation source for a home video transfer is good for detail, but bad for color, because all the color timing information is lost and has to be done over again. As we have often seen, the original colors are frequently disregarded when this happens, and the result looks nothing like it did on its initial release—even if it subjectively appears good or 'realistic'.