There are many reasons to enjoy this version more than the 1999 film. By cutting to the chase (when the film opens, Ripley has already met up with Greenleaf and Marge in Italy), you're pulled right into the story. This film runs 25 minutes less and seems even shorter because the tension builds from the very beginning (whereas Minghella's film sets up a lot of exposition). The gay angle is pretty heavily hinted at throughout most of this film, although it's clear at the end that Ripley is at least playing at being straight. Alain Delon is great and the ending does pack a wallop.
But in one critical way, the 1999 version is far better (warning spoiler): at the end of that film, just as Ripley thinks he's beaten the odds, he is forced to destroy something he loves in order to extricate himself from yet another lie. In the end, he is left with only himself to blame for the emptiness of his life. You have sit through a lot to get to that ending, but it breaks your heart in a way that the 1960 version doesn't.
(Interestingly, neither ending is apparently faithful to the book, but both are better.)
But in one critical way, the 1999 version is far better (warning spoiler): at the end of that film, just as Ripley thinks he's beaten the odds, he is forced to destroy something he loves in order to extricate himself from yet another lie. In the end, he is left with only himself to blame for the emptiness of his life. You have sit through a lot to get to that ending, but it breaks your heart in a way that the 1960 version doesn't.
(Interestingly, neither ending is apparently faithful to the book, but both are better.)