DALLAS BUYERS CLUB
US, 2013, 120 minutes, Colour.
Matthew Mc Conaughey, Jared Leto, Jennifer Garner, Dennis O’ Hare, Steve Zahn, Dallas Roberts, Griffin Dunne.
Directed by Jean- Marc Vallee.
Dallas Buyers Club made quite an impact on its release at the end of 2013. It was nominated for a number of Oscars, including best film and won acting awards for Matthew Mc Conaughey as best actor and Jared Leto as best supporting actor.
This is an interesting experience rather than an enjoyable film. It takes its audience back into the 1980s, to the time of the emergence of AIDS, with puzzlement about the emergence of the illness, its origins, its causes, its communication, the prevalence among gay men, the acquiring of the disease through unprotected sex with men and women, the communication of the disease by shared needles. With the subsequent 30 years of history and the changes in treatment for AIDS, its prevalence throughout the world, the removal of much of the social stigma of the 1980s and 1990s, it is important to do some kind of examination of the situation, some kind of examination of conscience, about reactions and behaviour in those decades. It is also important to look at the developments and abuses of drugs taken to combat the virus.
We are introduced to Ron Woodruff, an electrician in Texas, a participant in rodeos (with sexual behaviour behind the barriers), a kind of self-important man-about-town, leading a carefree and somewhat dissolute life, especially as regards sexual behaviour, alcohol and drugs. When he is injured through an electrical fault, he finds himself not only in hospital but with serious doctors telling him that he has only 30 days to live, that he was infected with the AIDS virus. He reacts violently, in denial.
He does go back to hospital where he encounters a transvestite in the ward, Rayon (Jared Leto), also with AIDS from his life on the street. Ron reacts to him with homophobic outbursts – which he then experiences from his co-workers, suspicious of his behaviour.
With the help of a worker at the hospital, he finds a doctor in Mexico who is able to supply him with AZT which improves his health. However, eventual research indicates that AZT is injurious to the immune system and Ron makes further investigations about the availability of drugs, many of which are prohibited by the FDA in the United States. He starts to import from Mexico and from other countries, impersonating a priest to get them through the border, but not being effective and immediately coming under suspicion.
To continue to help people who line up at his motel door, he decides to form a club asking financial membership which enables the members to get the drugs. He is helped by Rayon and the two gradually form a strong friendship, Ron overcoming a lot of his prejudices as he deals with actual people rather than gossip and hearsay.
The film continues with interventions from the FDA officials, court cases, his improving health and Rayon’s deteriorating health. All through he has been helped by a sympathetic doctor from the hospital, played by Jennifer Garner.
Ron Woodruff eventually lived another seven years, and during those years the US government had to consider further medication to combat AIDS and the safety and health of those involved in trials as well as the many – which we know from history was numerous – who were to die from AIDS.
While Matthew Mc Conaughey is jauntily comic at times, and Jared Leto gives a moving performance, the film is not so much popular entertainment, but a film which engages the mind as well as the heart and urges us to look back over history in order to learn from it.
1. A perspective on history? Medical history? Social illness? Moral concerns?
2. The number of awards and their merit?
3. The title, Ron Woodruff, from Texas, his story, the issue of drugs for HIV, his club and membership? Helping HIV patients to some better health?
4. The framework, the rendezvous, the sex during the rides, unprotected sex, disease? Ron and his bets? The chase? The end, the ride, staying on and surviving?
5. Ron Woodruff, Matthew Mc Conaughey’s performance, Oscar? The introduction to him, at the rodeo, his lifestyle, sexual partners, betting, losing, his being pursued, the police helping him out and delivering him home? The angry pursuers? His work, electrician, the trapped man, the electric charge and his being knocked out, waking in hospital, the doctors and their presence, explaining his situation to him, his angry response, 30 days to live?
6. The diagnosis, the tests, his reaction, swearing, the numbering of the days for his life – and going beyond the 30? By 1992 at the time of his death, well
beyond the 30 days?
7. His way of life, single, bravado, dissolute, sex – and his not going to Saudi Arabia for work because of its social and sexual mores? His friends, their partners, his looking at the calendar?
8. Going back to the doctors, their diagnoses, advice? The issue of drugs, the FDA? The officials? AZT, the trials, the meetings of the companies and doctors, the placebos and the drug? Ron wanting to go on the trial?
9. His friends, their suspicions about his sexual behaviour, the homophobic reactions, which he also shared about others? The fights with his friends, being refused to go on site? His home, locked out? His collapse?
10. The hospital, in the ward, Rayon and his sharing the ward, Ron’s reaction, abusive language? Rayon, playing cards? Ron and his leaving, Eve and her calling him back?
11. The principal doctor, working with the companies, the rules, on the wards? The contrast with Eve, the interviews with her, his personal interest? The facts of the case, her empathy? Ron inviting her to a meal, the gift of his mother’s painting, his stealing her pad and using it for prescriptions? Her reaction? His challenges to her about the rules and interpretation? Her supporting him?
12. The sequences in Mexico? Information about drugs? AZT? Its dangers for the immune system? The information about other countries including Israel? The importation of the drugs, the disguise as the priest – and its failure?
13. The Club, the range of members, signing in, their lining up at the motel, the young man who could not afford the drugs? and the effect?
14. Rayon, his work, the growing bond with Ron, eventually the embrace, going to his father, seeing his background, the request for finance? His final
illness, his death?
15. The variety of helpers, the work done, advice about the law? Explanations of what was happening?
16. The inspectors, their interrogations? Ron and his importing the drugs, the role of the law?
17. His decision to sue, the help of the lawyers, the sequences in court, the hearings, the FDA officers, witnesses and the officials, the judge sympathetic to Ron, but having to rule against him?
18. The final importing of the drugs, using Eve’s documents?
19. Ron himself, living another seven years, the final rodeo ride, symbol of his clinging to life despite the bumps?
20. The importance of this kind of film for taking audiences into the history of AIDS, of drugs, and seen in the light of subsequent developments and control of HIV?
