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| Poster artwork for the biographical drama film Dallas Buyers Club. |
Death-Delaying Drugs by Linh
The biographical drama film Dallas Buyers Club is inspired by true
events and loosely based on the years following Texan electrician Ronald
Woodroof being diagnosed with HIV in 1986. Woodroof died in 1992 and the film
focusses on the last several years of his life being spent researching,
smuggling and selling non-approved and illegal drugs used to treat HIV-positive
and AIDS patients. Woodroff set up a buyers’ club in Dallas, where he sold
various life-prolonging but unapproved drugs to cash-paying members. Other
buyer’s clubs were already in existence at the time, but Woodroff’s Dallas buyers’ club frequently ignored warnings from pharmaceutical companies and the
US FDA (Food and Drug Administration) on the dangerous side effects of some of
the drugs. According to Woodroof, he was battling for survival and ”if it is
out there, if I can get my hands on it, if I can buy, bribe, steal or whatever,
I will go for it” (Minutaglio 1992).
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| COWBOY CRUSADER: Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey) attempts to sell his non-approved HIV/AIDS drugs on the streets in the drama film Dallas Buyers Club. Image: Pinnacle Films, Focus Features. |
The film is a fictionalised dramatisation drawn from Woodroff’s battle
against the FDA to acquire non-approved drugs used to treat himself and other HIV
and AIDS patients. The film uses an article featuring Woodroff as a basis for
the story, but departs from the original story to include the characters of Dr.
Eve Saks and Rayon; and Ron’s sleazy and carefree lifestyle of excessive drug
taking, frequent unprotected sex and nightly visits to brothels, nightclubs and
bars.
Dallas Buyers Club took twenty years to produce, but was filmed over
twenty-five days in Louisiana in 2012 with a small budget of five million
dollars. There are many scenes and characters created using artistic license
while other aspects of the film reflect true events, such as Woodroof creating
and operating a buyers’ club in Dallas, travelling worldwide to seek unapproved
medicines, the desperate smuggling of those medicines into the USA, and
Woodroof’s lawsuit against the FDA.
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| COMPASSIONATE CONCERNS: Dr. Eve Saks (Jennifer Garner) has doubts about human trials for a non-approved drug in the drama film Dallas Buyers Club. Image: Pinnacle Films, Focus Features. |
The film opens in 1985 with Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey) engaging
in sexual intercourse with a woman inside a horse stall at the rodeo, while he
watches a rider being kicked down by a bucking bull. Later, Ron places bets for
punters at the rodeo but he loses all their money and runs off. Luckily, Ron encounters
his police friend Tucker (Steve Zahn), who pretends to arrest him then gives
him a ride home. After a wild night of cocaine-snorting, drinking, sex,
and a violent confrontation, Ron is late for work the next day. At work, a co-worker has an accident and Ron tries to shut off the electricity but is electrocuted. He wakes up in Dallas Mercy Hospital where Dr.
Sevard (Denis O’Hare) and Dr. Eve Saks (Jennifer Garner) inform him he is HIV
positive. At the suggestion that he may have had homosexual intercourse, Ron reveals
his homophobic nature but is dumbstruck to hear he has thirty days to live.
After the initial shock, Ron vows to fight his HIV and live for as long as he
could by any means possible.
In a desperate attempt to prolong his life, Ron bribes a hospital
orderly (Ian Cassleberry) for the drug AZT, an antiviral which was still being
tested in human trials at the time. Unfortunately, Ron’s cocaine-snorting while
taking AZT sends him back to hospital. Ron meets Rayon (Jared Leto), a
transgender who is also HIV positive and is part of the AZT trials. Despite
Ron’s homophobia, he develops a friendship with Rayon after she uses her
connections to help him sell unapproved HIV/AIDS drugs to the LGBT community on
the streets and at the Dallas buyers’ club. The FDA soon hears of Ron’s buyers’
club flouting the law by continuing to sell non-approved drugs such as compound
Q, DDC and the protein Peptide T, so raids are carried out to confiscate
non-approved drugs on the premises. Ron launches legal action against the FDA
and continues operating his buyers’ club.
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| PHARMACEUTICAL PURVEYORS: Mr Yamata (Scott Takeda) and Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey) discuss availability of non-approved AIDS treatment in the drama film Dallas Buyers Club. Image: Pinnacle Films, Focus Features. |
Dallas Buyers Club is a small independent film that contains nudity, sex
scenes, drug use and strong language, which had a limited release in most
countries. The film’s casting originally had Brad Pitt or Ryan Gosling in the
role of Ron Woodroof and Hilary Swank as Dr. Eve Saks, with Craig Gillespie
rumoured to be directing. However, the eventual cast is excellent and the
performances were compelling and ripe for awards season.
Matthew McConaughey (Mud, The Wolf of Wall Street) has been a rom-com
(romantic comedy) stalwart for many years, and his move into serious dramatic
roles in films in recent years proves to be worth the wait. McConaughey shed
over twenty kilograms for the role of Ron Woodroof, and his gaunt and slender
frame looked very similar to an AIDS patient. He gives a charismatic and
crowd-pleasing performance as the homophobic, hustling and foul-mouthed Ron, a
crusader for the fight against AIDS and HIV.
Jared Leto (Requiem For A Dream, Fight Club) spends most of his time
these days as lead singer and songwriter for his band 30 Seconds To Mars, but he
remains an accomplished actor. His portrayal as the transgender Rayon adds to
his list of quirky and complex characters that excite, frustrate and are
awe-inspiring. Leto also lost weight for his role in Dallas Buyers Club, and is
barely recognisable in his role as the fun-loving, gorgeously dressed Rayon.
Jennifer Garner (Draft Day, Imagine) is convincingly practical, smart
and compliant as Dr. Eve Saks and she shows compassion towards her patients.
Dr. Eve Saks represents doctors and practitioners in the medical establishment
who are cautious and concerned about the horrible side effects of drugs being
tested for HIV and AIDS research. As Eve reads further literature regarding the
non-approved drugs, she begins to understand that some risks are worth taking
to save lives.
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| PECULIAR PARTNERSHIP: Rayon (Jared Leto) agrees to assist Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey) in selling non-approved AIDS drugs to save lives in the drama film Dallas Buyers Club. Image: Pinnacle Films, Focus Features. |
Dallas Buyers Club is a wild ride alongside a Texan cowboy whose life
journey changes direction when HIV and AIDS become his reality. The film
provides a small insight into the early period of the AIDS epidemic from the
patients’ perspective and from the viewpoint of the pharmaceutical and FDA
administrators in approving AIDS/HIV drugs. The film attempts to realistically depict
a generalised fear of AIDS during the 1980s in conservative America by linking
it to homosexual intercourse, instead of the research and facts of contracting
and preventing AIDS. However, the film’s supporting characters are well
utilised to depict the ignorance and fear regarding the issues of AIDS in areas
such as unprotected sex, sexuality, and medical establishments working with
government agencies to potentially exploit AIDS/HIV patients by charging
exorbitant prices for treatment.
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée
Writers: Craig Borten
(screenplay), Melisa Wallack (screenplay), Bill Minutaglio (original article)
Cast: Matthew McConaughey,
Jennifer Garner, Jared Leto, Denis O’Hare, Steve Zahn, Michael O’Neill, Deneen
Tyler, Donna Duplantier, Kevin Rankin, Griffin Dunne, Ian Casselberry, Don
Brady, John Tabler, Jane McNeill, Joji Yoshida, Scott Takeda, Tony Bentley,
Dallas Roberts, J.D. Evermore, Sean Boyd, Matthew Thompson, James DuMont,
Lawrence Turner, Noelle Wilcox, Lucius Falick, Bradford Cox, Carl Palmer, Craig
Borten
Producers: Holly Wiersma,
Nathan Ross, Cassian Elwes, Nicolas Chartier, Tony Notargiacomo, Logan Levy,
David L. Bushell, Zev Foreman, Joe Newcomb, Rachel Winter, Robbie Brenner,
Parry Creedon, Michael Sledd
Cinematographer: Yves Bélanger
(Director of Photography)
Film Editors: Martin Pensa,
Jean-Marc
Vallée
Production: John Paino (Production Designer), Javiera Varas (Art
Director), Robert Covelman (Set Decorator)
Costume Designer: Kurt and Bart
Running Time: 2 hours
Reference:
Minutaglio, Bill (1992). Buying Time: World Traveller Ron Woodroof Smuggles Drugs - and Hope - For People With AIDS. Dallas Life Magazine, 9 August 1992.
Accessed on 10 February 2014
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