I love insider info like this about the shooting of the alley scene! Here are two film stills from Striped Wall regarding this scene. There are tons of stills from the dry heaves scene on Striped Wall. The clouds are interesting in these two examples for sure. Kind of stormy.

<img src="http://www.divshare.com/img/midsize/3121107-22d.jpg" border="0" />
Thank you for finding the caps, Amanda!
Poor Ennis.

I have to re-quote Ang Lee once more:
We were on the third take, his fists were bleeding, he’d literally spilled all his guts, and something in the background struck me as being perfect.
With that description of his bleeding fists, and the fact that the Thanksgiving fight scene apparently saw Heath pretty beat up too, - doesn't it seem that the Ennis role got unusually physical? I guess I'm so used to reading about special effects, stunt doubles, sound effects.... it's normally all just a carefully executed illusion. A lead actor really getting injured and pummeled to this extent during takes surely isn't common? Heath truly did give his all as Ennis, and the benefit was all ours. Sigh.
