What makes it different from others?

the audience applauded

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

The 2h45 minute long movie is really beautiful, fantastic camerawork, great actors, great detail. The best thing is the dialogue, every sentence makes sense, there's no silly filler talk. The action is top. I've only watched it twice but this movie you can enjoy any time you re-watch it. You shouldn't be impatient though, as the story is revealed slowly in a dramatic way.

Henry Fonda Jason Robards Charles Bronson. OMG does it get any better? Amazing soundtrack. Some people think its slow, it's not, it's paced beautifully. This is obviously a Quinten Tarantino influence.

This has it all: operatic in its themes of revenge (Harmonica), and redemption (Cheyenne), epic cinematography (the last scene, shot from the train), and an emotionally driven score (Jill's Theme). My vote for the best western ever made, and one of the best films as well. See the full-length version. I saw it in the Neptune Theatre in Seattle, maybe 1983. The Seattle Times review said it was "heart stoppingly beautiful." It is.

Sergio Leone loves to keep the mood on edge by having repetitive annoying sounds, like the wind mill or insects overly loud. Not a real fan of this style, I know I am bucking the tide with all these glowing reviews, but the sound track is far to annoying to allow me to watch any longer, he would find a better use of his skills torturing audiophiles with chalk board scratching. As far as the best western ever, that I find laughable, another film firmly stuck in the time period it was filmed and it hasn't aged gracefully. This wreaks of spaghetti western, never an honest portrayal because the writing are always obtuse