Alternate versions

The original British theatrical release had about 4 minutes cut by the BBFC. Many closeup shots of bloodied faces and bodies (including the body of Chico) were removed, as well as a shot of Ramon dripping blood from his mouth. The main cuts, however, were to the beating up of Eastwood, which lost a hand stomping scene, and extensive cuts to the assault on the Baxters' house which was cut to shorten the overall sequence by removing all shots of men on fire, and the shooting of Consuela Baxter. (The cut version removes the shot of her falling backwards.) The 1999 MGM video and DVD releases are fully uncut and the same as the USA DVD release.

The German re-release omitted two minutes of film and re-dubbed the picture to give it a slightly more comedic tone; the same happened with For a Few Dollars More (1965).

In the Kino Lorber prints, they have the additional Kino Lorber and 2009 MGM logos in addition to including the closing 2009 MGM logo.

The United Artists logo is plastered with the text variant in the 1982 VHS, 1982 variant in the CBS/Fox VHS print, MGM/UA Communications Co. and 1987 United Artists logo in the 1988 VHS, short version of the 1987 variant in the 1993 VHS and 1994 variant in the 1999 DVD.

When the film first aired on American TV (ABC) in August 1977, a network executive ordered the creation of a new prologue (directed by Monte Hellman) to give a moral justification for the lead character's killings: a prison warden (Harry Dean Stanton) commutes "The Man With No Name's" sentence if he goes to San Miguel and restores order to the town. Neither Eastwood or Leone participated in this new sequence ("The Man With No Name" is seen only from the rear.), and this distortion of Leone's creative vision has reportedly been dropped from subsequent presentations. This prologue can be found on the Special Edition DVD and later Blu-Ray release along with an interview with Harry Dean Stanton about its making and sourcing from a Betamax copy of the ABC American TV broadcast.