Allrighty. On
with the Oscar season. I know for a fact that some people who are slightly more
soft-hearted are thinking of possibly steering clear of this one. Death,
disease, a long struggle against nothing less than the pharmaceutical companies
and a very prejudiced “system… Yeah I totally agree, this is not what one might
call uplifting. But then again, and I have said this before, not everything in
life is uplifting. And if art imitates life, I reckon it only makes sense it
imitates the good things and the bad. Besides, Dallas Buyers Club is definitely
not all doom and gloom. Oh no. Not by a long shot.
The year is
1985 and Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey) is a regular, all-American guy
getting on with his life. He is an electrician by trade, although he has many,
many side lines most of them not entirely legal. He likes drinking and doing
various drugs with his buddies and “getting it on” with a lovely lady or two
(or three) in his spare time – a proper man’s man if you see what I mean. In
short, he has a bit of a good thing going in life until a work related accident
lands him in hospital where it is discovered that he is HIV positive. His
lifestyle means that it has escalated into full-blown AIDS and Ron is told he
has a month left to him to get his affairs in order – if he’s lucky. This is a
complete blow out of the blue for Ron, not least because he is a red blooded
“man’s man” and cannot see how he could have contracted a “homo disease”. But
he is not the kind of man to hide from anything for long so he rolls up his
sleeves and gets to it. Because Ron has plans and they don’t include dying in a
month. He has a long and rocky road before him not least because his ignorance on the matter is only rivalled by
his prejudices towards “homos” who now cross his path more and more often. But
as Ron forges forward, he begins to discover some very unexpected friends and
allies… And, potentially, a revolutionary way to prolong his own life and the
lives of his new found friends… With new friends, however, come new enemies. In
this specific case, a whole barrage of pharmaceutical companies… Ron truly has
his work cut out in more ways than one…
Now, if you
have read but a handful of the reviews for this film you will know one that a
lot of what happened is based on real life, but here’s the thing: In real life
Ron was not homophobic. In fact, he wasn’t even heterosexual. I have read
multiple articles that state that he was openly bisexual and that a lot of
people who associated with him in later life never thought of him as straight.
Then again, Craig Borten, the scriptwriter for the film swears up and down that
the Ron Woodruff he met was as racist and homophobic as they came. If you’re
asking what the heck is going on, as Ron Woodruff himself has been dead for a
while now the truth is we will never really know. Maybe he was “posturing” to
the press – I mean come on, anyone of average intelligence – and Ron was
definitely over the average – knows that the mainstream press is going to lap
up the story of a typical “red neck” that grew and developed through disease,
getting rid of his prejudices and becoming “one of us”. It may have purely been
a matter of getting his name out there. And come on, put your hand on your
heart and tell me the storyline didn’t get you too. This tactic is especially
effective when you have an actor as brilliant as McCaughnahey who can express
the change and development in the character in every single subtle movement on
screen. And of course from a technical perspective this storytelling gold;
ideally you have to see the character grow change and develop from the
beginning of the film to the end , it doesn’t get clearer than this. Plus it
gives an uplifting, anti-homophobic message that is much needed in a world
where the reverberations of the Sochi Winter Olympics and everything that
preceded it are still reverberating in our hearts. (Oh come on, don’t tell me
the timing wasn’t suspect at all… Seriously).
Now don’t
go thinking I am “disillusioned” by the film or am trying to “disillusion” you
or something. I’m actually praising the film. Because, even though from a
viewer’s perspective the film seems to appear on the screen as if by magic,
there is a lot of thought, planning, tactics and marketing that goes into it –
and Dallas Buyers Club does a spectacularly good job. The question we need to ask ourselves is, to
what extent did Ron Woodruff himself “meddle” in this. He made no secret at all
of his own activism so my bet is… There is a very good chance he put on an act
for the scriptwriter on purpose…
That said,
does it make our experience any less “real” ? Heck no. Quite apart from
anything else, everything Ron did, both for the good of his own health and to
fight against the big pharmaceutical companies for others are very real and make
awesome stories in their own turn. And quite apart from that, even though it
may be completely “real” one cannot help warming to the on-screen Woodruff and
MM does a wonderful job of portraying him. And of course one must not, CAN not
forget Rayon, as portrayed superbly by Jared Leto. And I do not just mean it in
the sense of “Oh what a good job he did portraying a transsexual person”. No.
Because what we tend to perhaps forget in the whole discussion about homophobia
and AIDS is that Dallas Buyers Club is also about coming to terms with your own
imminent death. Rayon is, above and beyond anything else, full of life and joie
de vivre and she does NOT want to die. Leto does an absolutely sterling job at
portraying Rayon’s heart breaking confrontation with this fact, especially in
the second half of the film.
So,
basically, you need to watch this film. There is a lot and I mean A LOT to
think about. Well, I mean, this is the story of a hustler at the end of the
day. Nothing is quite what it seems.
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