Finally, after all the anticipation, I watched it today and I'm glad I did. Beautiful, beautiful movie. I loved the scenery, I loved the story, I loved the sensitivity which Lee Ang and his production team brought to the entire story. Slightly different from the book, but I think it was a wonderful adaptation. I appreciate the details which were added to enhance atmosphere and emotions which emerged from watching the movie.

And Kidd (if u're reading this), you're right - Jake Gyllenhaal is absolutely worthy of his Oscar nomination. I think he has proven himself as a solid actor with this movie. Will he emerge winner? Well, I've only watched Crash and this one and if I were to just compare the 2 nominees (Matt Dillon from Crash), I'd say the honors definitely should do to Gyllenhaal. And Heath Ledger's portrayal was exactly like what I would imagine Ennis from the book would be like. No doubt both Jake and Heath look much more handsome than what was described in the book, but I think more importantly they both managed to embody the essence of their characters. Really, your heart ached as u watched them both crumble under the weight of their love, social pressure and the simple task of survival. And I do have to add this, I liked how they actually managed to age into 40 year-olds. Of course, the make-up team gets credit for that, but both Jake and Heath actually managed to walk and talk and showed mannerisms which made them convincing as middle-aged cowboys! And mind u, Heath was only 26 while Jake was only 25 when they filmed this.

Even the ladies were good, especially Michelle Williams as the long-suffering wife of Ennis. You pitied her, yet u couldn't bring urself to blame Ennis...

Usually when a movie is heart-wrenching, I would find myself only shedding tears towards the end, u know, in an "all-at-one-go" kind of thing. But with Brokeback, I cried at scattered points throughout the 2nd half of the movie, thou still especially at the end. Maybe it's because I've read the book and already knew the implications of certain scenes which 1st-time viewers might not catch. Still, a unique experience in that sense.

I think there have been lots of talk about the movie and reviews which can been seen in almost everywhere so I'll keep mine short. Nevertheless, I have to say this - believe in all the praises u've heard for this movie and just go and watch it. It's not merely a gay movie, but a movie with that embodies heart and soul.

Trivia (from IMDB):

The original short story by E. Annie Proulx was published in the 13 October 1997 issue of The New Yorker, without the italicized prologue which was included in the later version published in "Close Range", her collection of short stories.

The script by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana was written in 1997

According to reports, Heath Ledger nearly broke co-star Jake Gyllenhaal's nose while filming a kissing scene.
(Indeed, they seemed 'violent' at times...)

There were 75 visual effects shots created for the film by the Canadian house Buzz Image Group. Of these, 15 were of CGI sheep. The film called for about 2,500 sheep, but only 700 were on-set, necessitating the additional woolly creations. Also created for the film were sky replacements, set additions, erasures and the hail in the hailstorm.
(There were lots of 'wow's that could be heard from the audience, including me, when the camera pulled into a long shot of all the sheep grazing the mountains. Ahhh... now I know how it was 'done'...)

Ang Lee struggled continually with the sheep during the shoot. Apparently sheep don't drink from running water, only ponds and dams. Ang tried all day to get the sheep to drink from a stream, but they wouldn't oblige. He had to give up on the shot. Also, American sheep carry a bacteria/virus that Canadian sheep don't possess. The film's scene where two herds of sheep become mixed up had some nightmarish real-life parallels, as the Canadian government had expressly warned them of dire consequences if they caused any disease to spread to the local animals from the south-of-the-border variety.

Afraid that Anne Hathaway's previous films The Princess Diaries (2001) and Ella Enchanted (2004) would work against her during auditions, the casting director introduced Anne to director Ang Lee as a New York Broadway actress. He fortunately didn't know she had any success prior to being cast.

In her book "The Sense and Sensibility Screenplay & Diaries: Bringing Jane Austen's Novel to Film", Emma Thompson writes that after a particularly difficult day filming a sequence that involved a flock of sheep, Ang Lee swore that he would never again use the animals on a movie set. This movie, however, is about two young men who meet while sheep herding.