I can't fully put it into words, but when I think of this derth of affection in the later part of the film, these words from the end of Proulx's magick come to mind.
"...“Jack, I swear—” he said, though Jack had never asked him to swear anything and was himself not the swearing kind."
Perhaps, it is part of the agony these two men put one another through, that makes the lack of physical display of affection even harder to take in the film. Ennis unable to even say this much to Jack when he was alive. And, Proulx's words making me really question who Jack was. Both of them, like all of us, imperfect beings. But they, flawed in so many ways, it makes the lack of even the hugs they shared in latter years a hard pill indeed. Maybe, I look for some answer within myself to explain the actions I have taken in my own life. Just maybe, I'm wanting Master Lee's film to have said, it's hard, but this is why it was worth it. When in truth, this film slams me with the stark costs of not 'making it worth it'.
I think perhaps this is part of why this film hits some of us so hard even now. It reaches into our own souls and screams 'Enough'. I am not going to accpet the status quo of my own life. 'I' deserve better than what I have allowed my own fears of what might happen if I reach for my own bliss and should fail. Like other's have written, Brokeback Mountian can be taken as as powerfull a morality play as the best the ancient Greeks gave us. It's sheer imagery takes it into the realm of mythology. Which is it not then of the same flavor of the power many find within their own relegious practices?
I think for the moment, I will leave this here. For what I've written, it is more of my own questions I cant not fully answer as yet. Perhaps, this is the greatest power of this film. It gets us to ask the questions we might never have asked of ourselves.