THE GOOD FIGHT: "Dallas Buyers' Club"

(Photo by Anne Marie Fox/ Focus Features) Jared Leto as Rayon & Matthew McConaughey as Ron Woodroof.

Some of the scenes from director Jean Marc Valleé’s film “The Dallas Buyers Club”  may be hard to watch, but don’t let this stop you from seeing this important film.   People born after 1982 have no conception of what life was like for gay men suffering from HIV/AIDS in the 1980s.  The disease is transmitted through unprotected sex (sans condom) with an infected partner.  Some intravenous drug users also contracted the disease from dirty needles.  When it was discovered that people could be  infected through blood transfusions, blood was then tested for the virus.  Drug users were told to use only new, clean needles, and some clinics provided a needle exchange service.  However, this practice was controversial and many conservatives, religious groups, and right wing officeholders spoke against it and blocked it.  

Vallée focused on true events of seven years in the life of Ron Woodroof, a heterosexual, homophobic Texas cowboy.    One day in 1985, he ended up in the hospital because of a work-related injury (he was an electrician).  Dr. Sevard (Denis O’Hare) tells him he has HIV/AIDS and has thirty days to live.  He reacts as you would expect, shouting, “I ain’t no faggot!”  then tells the doctor to “fuck off” as he stomps out.

Actor Matthew McConaughey is known for such film rôles as a liberal Southern lawyer; the leader of a male-stripper dance troupe in “Magic  Mike;” outlaw, self-exiled, island recluse in “Mud,” and heart-breaker in a few rom-coms.  In “The Dallas Buyers Club," he had  lost about thirty pounds to play Woodroof and comes off as totally believable.  In his cowboy hat, tight jeans, and boots he looks dangerously thin, but it no way detracts from his swaggering cowboy studliness.  Ron is a schemer.  He works the rodeos, readying steer riders before they are shot out of the chutes.  He bets on rides and events, usually winning and appears to have a lot of money.  It doesn’t hurt that there are artful scenes of him in a ménage a trois with a blond and a brunette.

 

Later, after his diagnosis (which he vehemently denies), we see him in a bar where he and his buddies pore over a newspaper, commenting derisively as they read the shocking headline that leading man, movie star Rock Hudson had died – of AIDS.  Soon, word gets around about Ron.  His friends and co-workers ostracize him; he’s evicted from his home in a trailer park: “Faggot Blood” had been spray-painted on his trailer.  Another altercation where he’s seriously injured attracts the police, one of whom, luckily, happens to be his tolerant, caring brother, Tucker (Steve Zahn).  Tucker drives him to the hospital where he meets his transgender roommate, Rayon, beautifully played by Jared Leto (lead singer and guitarist from 30 Seconds to Mars, who had also shed pounds for the film).  Ron tosses off some homophobic remarks. Ray has heard them all before so lets them pass with a shrug.  Ron grudgingly accepts Ray's friendship once he deals with the fact that he’s infected.  In researching the disease and finding that one of the causes is unprotected sex with infected people, he recalls instances of engaging in this activity with several partners, sometimes involving both men and women. 

 Jennifer Garner plays a sympathetic Dr. Eve Saks.  She and Sevard tell Ron about blind AZT clinical trials and that it could be years before he could participate.  He connects with a hospital orderly who steals the drug for him.  When the hospital starts keeping track, he gives Ron the address of Dr. Vass (bearded, scruffy Griffin Dunne) in Mexico.  Vass warns him of the dangers of AZT and gives him supplies of “safe” drugs.  Woodroof and Rayon set up a kind of dispensary in a motel to sell the contraband drugs and make a lot of money.  His lawyer, David Wayne (Dallas Roberts of “The Good Wife”), advises him to set up his “business” as a club and charge a membership fee, otherwise, the IRS would get on his case- hence, The Dallas Buyers Club.  During another visit, Dr. Vass explains the importance of a healthy immune system to fight the disease, that he must change his diet, stop drinking and using cocaine.  A scene of Woodroof and Rayon shopping in a supermarket lends a light touch to the film and allows us to experience their caring relationship and respect.  He reaches a breakthrough when he realizes that he not only wants to save his own life, but those of others he has come to know and care about, especially Rayon.

 Soon he is hounded by the FDA, his “club” shut down, stock and supplies confiscated.    In a well-tailored black suit and black cowboy hat, he flies to Japan following leads to obtain drugs that are legal in Europe but not in the US.  On the way home in an airport bathroom in the States, he suffers a heart attack brought on by a self-administered injection of a drug and ends up in the hospital- again.

Woodruff continues to consult with Dr. Vass who experiments with natural alternatives to AZT and gives him a supply of protein based capsules considered outside of FDA jurisdiction.  In his research he discovers an article in the British journal Lancet about the deadly side effects of AZT, makes copies of it, gives some to Saks, who leaves copies where patients and hospital staff can see them, and orders her staff to lower the AZT doses on all her patients, which almost costs her her job.

Still, Woodroof’s condition worsens- his hair thins, his skin turns flakey, sunken eyes and cheeks- as he continues to be harassed by FDA officials and the hospital staff.  His supply of the protein capsules is confiscated.  In one heartbreaking scene, we witness him driving to Mexico where he experiences the onset of dementia, a condition suffered by a majority of AIDS sufferers.  His disoriented, confused actions alert the border patrol.  Tucker comes for him and takes him to the hospital.  Later, Woodroof and Wayne sue the FDA.  The case eventually makes it to the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.  Back in Texas, he finds he has won and can legally take the protein supplement.

Ron Woodroof died of AIDS in 1992, seven years after his diagnosis.

Matthew McConaughey is Ron Woodroof in this film.  He made a brave choice in accepting this role, making you feel for Ron every moment.  There are a lot of films and actors up for Academy Awards; McConaughey deserves one for Best Actor.

HIV/AIDS is a global pandemic.  As of 2012, approximately 35.3 million people have HIV worldwide, with the number of new infections that year being about 2.3 million. This is down from 3.1 million new infections in 2001.