As someone living in the United States and dealing with the bureaucratic bull crap that is the FDA and the insurance companies digging their feet in to prevent me from having access to a life-saving drug, I can relate to the story of Ron Woodroof. While my situation is nowhere near as dire as his was, I face some serious consequences in the future because I do not have access to an FDA-approved drug unless I can magically come up with more than a thousand dollars a month to pay for it. Thanks to the insanity that is the United States’ big pharmacy, I will probably die early when it could have been 100% prevented. It sucks, but it is what those of us with major medical problems face on a daily basis. That could be years from now. Ron Woodroof was given 30 days. He turned that into seven years through some ingenuity and a legal battle with the FDA over potentially life-saving medications that he could only gain access to from another country. God bless America.
1985 was right in the midst of the AIDS epidemic. Promiscuous Dallas electrician and rodeo cowboy Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey), after a workplace accident, is diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and given 30 days to live. In those days, AIDS was still widely considered a disease affecting mainly the gay community, even though that was far from the truth. Ron rejects this diagnosis, insisting that the blood work was faulty. Through some research, though, he realizes that it is also transmitted through the use of drug needles and that he had had unprotected sex with a prostitute who was also a user.
News of his condition gets out, and he is quickly ostracized by his family and friends, who assume he contracted AIDS from having gay sex. His doctor, Eve Saks (Jennifer Garner), informs him that an antiretroviral drug called zidovudine (AZT)—the only drug so far approved by the FDA for human clinical trials—may prolong his life, but the only way to receive it is through the trials, and half the people signed up for it will only receive a placebo since that is the only way to determine if the drug works. Woodroof at first bribes a hospital worker to obtain the drug, but his use of cocaine and alcohol exacerbates the situation, causing his health to worsen. Recuperating in the hospital, he meets Rayon (Jared Leto), a trans woman who is also HIV positive. Though he is initially hostile towards Rayon, the two eventually become friends.
In desperation, Ron contacts Dr. Vass (Griffin Dunn), an American doctor who lost his license for violating US regulations while treating AIDS patients. Dr. Vass operates a makeshift Mexican hospital and warns Ron that AZT is “poisonous,” prescribing Ron with a cocktail of drugs and nutritional supplements which are not approved in the United States by the FDA. Ron begins using these medications and supplements to help treat others desperate in the face of AIDS, selling membership in the Dallas Buyers Club, a club that gives out the medication in order to skirt the laws against selling the unauthorized drugs. This provides those trying to prolong their lives a chance to do so. It also puts him in the target line of the FDA, which seeks to put a stop to his efforts.
The FDA is there to protect lives and prevent people from taking advantage of desperate people staring down the barrel of terminal illness; at least that is what they are supposed to be doing. This film posits that the FDA serves to protect big pharma, who lobby for their medications to get special treatment and fast-track trials for big profits. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle, to be honest. The film also brings up the rights a person should have to access to treatments that the FDA doesn’t approve of. After all, your body, your choice isn’t just relegated to the subject of abortion. If there is a medication being used to successfully treat people in Japan, why should a person in another country have to die without treatment because their government won’t let them try it of their own recognizance? The reason given in the courts is “Because it’s the law.” For many people, that’s not good enough. After all, if you’re dying already, what more do you have to lose?
This film also humanizes AIDS victims in a way few films do. I was nine years old when the events in this film were taking place, and I remember well the stigma that was associated with contracting AIDS. There were all sorts of homophobic slurs and opinions on HIV, even getting into the 90s when we should have known better. We were kids back then and immature, lashing out at something we didn’t understand. I look back at our mentalities in those days with shame. It took having a cousin contracting AIDS to cement to me that this was not just some disease God was inflicting on the gays. This was attacking everyone, gay or straight; it didn’t matter.
When faced with a terminal diagnosis like this, people panic. There just has to be a way to beat it, they think. It can’t be happening to me; I thought I was invincible. Ron goes through all of that when the news is delivered to him. He lashes out at the doctors who, honestly, could have delivered the news better than they did. Then he latches onto the only hope he can see. A drug that he is told will help him, but is out of his reach. It’s like when Steve McQueen was in his final months and flew to Mexico for treatments that had already been proven ineffectual to treat his cancer; you get desperate enough, you’ll try anything.
Going through this illness opens Ron’s eyes, too. He begins the movie actively hostile to the gay community. By the time it ends, he is actively working with the homosexual community, including the transgendered Rayon, to help keep them alive. At some point, it ceases to be about the money and becomes a crusade to save lives. This experience opens Ron’s eyes to something. Before, he saw gay and transgender people as repulsive, something to scorn and look down on. It took being brought down off his high horse to show him the reality of things.
I’m not the biggest fan of Jared Leto. Most of the time, I see him as a detriment to a production. His career of late has supported that, too, with films like Blade Runner 2049, Morbius, and Tron: Ariesbombing at the box office. For years after his turn as the Joker in Suicide Squad, I was firmly not a fan of him, and his off-set antics only further repelled me. Then I saw him in a low-budget film from early in his career, Last of the High Kings, and I saw what he was like before this hype got to his head. There was a time when he could act like a normal person and not be stealing the spotlight with his oddball performances that rivaled Johnny Depp’s.
Playing a transgendered woman would seem more like the modern Jared Leto. That criticism can easily be made, especially in the earlier scenes between him and Matthew McConaughey. But if you really pay attention to what he is doing here, you can see that this is not really an exaggeration, not like some of his more recent stuff. This is a character that is fully fleshed out. On top of the incredibly writing, Leto has emaciated himself to come across as someone who is knocking on death’s door. Rayon is gaunt and sallow, especially later in the film, and you can see that even when she is acting out and being funny, there is a fear in those eyes. As the film progresses, her desperation also increases.
Just watch the scene when she puts on a suit and approaches her father at his work, asking for help. You can see that doing so is extremely difficult and against everything she stands for, but the situation is so dire that she is willing to do it anyway. Then, just a few scenes later, when the disease further progresses and Rayon believes the end is nearly upon her, she cries out “I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die,” as blood is coming out of her mouth. Gay, straight, or anything in between, this is a human being pleading for their life, and we cannot help but feel for her. Whether we agree with her lifestyle or not, she didn’t deserve this.
Matthew McConaughey’s transformation is equally harrowing here. Even before the HIV takes hold of him, he is gaunt. Through some serious dieting and award-winning makeup, he further advances that look to the point that it’s sickening just looking at him. He looks like a man with only 30 days to live. Both he and Leto won Oscars for this film, and rightfully so. This is such a commanding and riveting performance, and it’s hard to take your eyes off either actor when they are on screen. They are so good, in fact, that they completely overshadow Jennifer Garner, who is really good in her own right but gets limited screen time to shine.
Dallas Buyers Club is, of course, inspired by real events. Ron Woodroof wasn’t the only one in Dallas running a buyer’s club to help provide medication and hope to people during the AIDS epidemic, but he was one of the more prominent figures in that position. It brought attention to the shortcomings of the FDA and US pharmacy while also highlighting the laws that prevent people from making their own choices about what they can and cannot take to treat a life-threatening illness. It’s a powerful drama packed with even more powerful performances and could easily have taken the Best Picture award that year. The film that did win that year, 12 Years a Slave, is also a great film and deserving of the win. It was a tough year in the competition, and one film had to come up short.
Academy Award Nominations:
Best Picture: Robbie Brenner and Rachel Winter
Best Actor: Matthew McConaughey (won)
Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto (won)
Best Original Screenplay: Craig Borten and Melissa Wallack
Best Film Editing: John Mac McMurphy and Martin Pensa
Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews (won)
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Release Date: November 22, 2013
Running Time: 117 Minutes
Rated R
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, and Jared Leto
Directed by: Jean-Marc Vallée
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