Directed by: Jean-Marc Vallee
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto, Jennifer Garner, Griffin Dunne
Ron Woodroof was diagnosed with HIV in 1985 and given about 30 days to live. As a straight, skirt-chasing, beer-swilling redneck, this diagnosis comes as quite a shock to him. AIDS and HIV were considered "gay diseases" in 1985 and a death sentence also. How could this be? After mulling over the doctor's prognosis and research at the library, Ron comes to the realization how and why he contracted the disease. One word signifies his feelings and it's a powerful moment in the film.
Desperate to prolong his life, Ron receives word of a new drug called AZT and works out a deal with a hospital orderly to buy a daily supply. Once the supply dries up, Ron makes his way to Mexico, where anti-HIV drugs are prescribed and sold under the table. After improving his health somewhat with a different medication cocktail, Ron smuggles the drugs back to Texas and begins selling them out of a motel room. He spreads word about a "buyers club", where for $400, AIDS and HIV patients can have access to drugs not approved by the FDA.
Ron is aided in his new business venture by Rayon (Leto), a pre-op transsexual whom Ron meets in the hospital. Prior to Ron's diagnosis, he never would've associated with a person like Rayon, but illness makes strange bedfellows. They not only become business partners, but friends, opening up Ron to a whole new level of understanding and compassion for his fellow AIDS sufferers. Long outlasting his original 30-day death prognosis, Ron becomes an unwitting advocate for better, safer access to drugs which help other AIDS patients. He doesn't do so by standing on a soapbox and holding meetings, but through legal battles with the FDA, which is forever trying to shut down his operation. Ron is not above making deals and bending the law to ensure he and his customers get the best treatment available.
The buyers club not only gives Ron access to better medications, but also a purpose in life which likely led to his living with AIDS for 7 years before succumbing to the disease in 1992. In that time, Ron not only develops friendships and business relationships with those he would've shunned earlier, but he also feels the sting of exclusion and prejudice by his friends. To his friends, Ron must be gay because, well, he has AIDS and any other conclusion would not make sense. When his former best friend meets Rayon in a supermarket and refuses to shake his hand, Ron stands up for Rayon in a poignant way (and the application of a chicken wing armbar).
Another intriguing friendship Ron makes is with hosptial doctor Eve Saks (Garner), who at first defends hospital policy on AZT, but then quits and joins Ron's cause. Ron's relationship with Eve is the first relationship Ron has with a female which doesn't involve sex. With Eve, Ron learns that women can be good for things other than the occasional pickle tickle.
Dallas Buyers Club is about Ron's growth as a human being while he fights for his life and others. He is flawed, troubled, prideful, stubborn, and compassionate. In other words, he's human. McConaughey lost a significant amount of weight to give Ron his gaunt appearance, but he becomes someone we care about despite his flaws. Leto's Rayon may appear on the outside as a stereotypical drag queen, but his loyalty to Ron is touching, especially in a scene where he begs his estranged banker father for money to keep the buyers club going. Garner is the picture of earnestness as a doctor who realizes that she can't live with herself by blindly following hospital policy.
Thank goodness Ron Woodroof doesn't become a hero by taking to the streets with a megaphone and organizing rallies like Abbie Hoffman. He takes on the system in a quieter, yet no less important way. Ron believes that a person with a terminal illness should have easy, affordable access to any treatment that could improve and prolong his/her life. Sounds like a sensible idea, but it's not practiced. With the dawn of Obamacare and attempts to improve this nation's healthcare system, Ron Woodroof's ideas are as timely and spot-on today as they were 25 years ago. In a way, we're all still fighting the same fight.
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