.....I also think it must feel really amazing to him to hear that much devotion explicitly stated. I think the camera does cut away before we see him fully absorb Jack's statement. And, yup, I think his main response must be physical in the tent (although it's an ominous tent encounter since there's no moon).
I just had the opportunity to re-watch the film one more time in the cinema, and one sequence that struck me strongly was the transition from Jack's "sometimes I miss you" line and Ennis's lack of spoken reply, to the two of them in the tent,
to the landscape outside with the river water rushing by in darkness. The river is still there, the symbol of Jack's and Ennis's relationship, and its current is going strong and fast - though in the darkness of night. To me, the sequence and imagery of those two latter scenes now give an extremely expressive visual representation of the short story's "brilliant charge" being "darkened by the sense of time flying". Their feelings for and attraction to each other is just as strong (expressed through Jack's spoken line, the physical intimacy in the tent and the flowing river), but time and distance and longing have nevertheless taken their toll and darkened the mood. (ie. the dark night / moonless night sky).
I think Ennis doesn't "have the language" to articulate what he feels about Jack, but I think the emotion of love is really there for him (probably at least from the 2nd tent scene on). [snip] I think also that by the second to last camping trip when Ennis asks Jack if he thinks people "know" and wonders if Jack's relationship with Lureen is "normal" he's already given up on the idea that he's not "queer." These questions are almost outright admissions that he feels and knows what his situation is.
I agree with this. At two crucial times when Ennis tries to speak about his physical relationship to a *man*, or to men ie. about being "queer, he says
"I don't know". That's his answer when Jack asks where he stands in relation to "getting into this again" after 4 years.
(Though Ennis's expression there gives his *real* answer. **sigh**) And when Ennis speaks about people in the streets knowing, he starts out with:
You ever get the feeling, I don't know...." He doesn't know; - meaning: He doesn't know how to articulate or adequately express in words all that he's nevertheless *aware* that he's feeling. For he knows that he's feeling *so very, very much* - about getting into it again with Jack, and about being, - and being seen as, - "queer".
Ennis having come to consider himself a "queer" contributes significantly to the darkening of the mood in those latter scenes, I think. For that realization on his part hasn't altered his homophobic opinion of "queers"- including himself. Increased self-loathing *and* increased fear of being found out are the consequences,. Hardly bright and cheerful aspects of being deeply in love.