Director Jean-Marc Vallée, also a part of the inter-
view said it this way, “To me it’s about the life-lesson behind it. I mean when you are told that you have 30 days to live, what do you do? Ron’s response was, ‘Oh Yeah? There is nothing out there that can kill me in 30 days… you just watch me.’ This guy had some big balls. With no education he becomes his own teacher, expert and lab rat. He was a crazy cowboy… he wanted to live.” It’s that particular kind of fight that in the end hu-
manizes Woodroof’s character, in his own words that “You are not going to tell me that I am going to die. F*ck you, I am going to live,” sensibility. To be certain, it has its reflection in the LGBT community and the sense of purpose that eventually took hold when so few were interested in helping. We were at that time still marginalized, still consid-
ered “not-quite-so-normal” and still on the outskirts of regular society. In that way and on other levels Ron was similar. He was an outsider, not a part of “accept- able” society. That isolation only grew and became more apparent after his diagnosis, when the bulk of his friends shunned him. After several self destructive faceplants and a near-
death experience or two, Ron comes to understand that his survival depends on taking control of his outcome. This realization eventually forces him to understand that he must rely on others and more im- portantly those he had hated and judged so harshly. As Vallée put it, “Watching the arc of transformation in Ron, slowly but surely, without him even realizing it, he eventually became a spokesperson for the gay community, the same one that he’s been bashing for years and years. It was because of who he was, how he was raised and where he came from, that he had the will to question and to fight through that adversity and become a better person.” McConaughey put it this way, “The hard truth that
I could see about Ron and the way I approached it with him contracting HIV, it was really the first time in his life that he had something he could grab onto. Something he could fight for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every single day until he was here no longer. Being that immersed in something is when he found an identity, he found a purpose.” Nobody could say that Ron was a saint, however
much of a fighter and a crusader he ended up being. He was at his core an opportunist, so when he cane across alternative treatments available in Mexico he found another purpose—and a way to make money. He begins smuggling these “treatments” into the U.S., challenging the medical and scientific community by figuring out a way around the FDA’s sanctions. He forms the Dallas Buyers Club and charges monthly dues for “memberships,” then gives away the non- approved medications and supplements. He struggles initially to make connections with those seeking treatment and finds an unlikely ally in a
34 RAGE monthly | NOVEMBER 2013 Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner
Director Jean-Marc Vallée
Jared Leto and Matthew McConaughey
transsexual character by the name of Rayon. She is ill, but has a desire to live equal to that of Ron—making them an unlikely pair, but kindred spirits of a sort. Jared Leto, who plays Rayon brilliantly I might add, rises to Ron’s every uneducated, homophobic chal- lenge and in the process, teaches him a thing or two about humility—and how to move product. McConaughey recalled a couple of favorite interac-
tions between Ron and Rayon. “During the scene when she and Ron are negotiating cuts, she says, 10 percent? Please, I won’t take less than 25.” The other scene he mentioned, “Rayon brings Ron to sell his “products” in a gay bar and it is so obvious that he re- ally doesn’t want to be there. She shimmies over and coos to him, ‘The one who has the honey, attracts the most bees!’” Their relationship develops into one of genuine
caring and Vallée shared with us the scene that for him, expressed that love the best. “I think the Supermarket scene says it all, there is something so unsaid, so untold between them. They are doing their thing and the way Rayon looks across at Ron—there is a love story there between these two guys—these
two men love each other. They came together for a purpose, relying on each other as they fight hard to survive. And then when Rayon passes, Ron falls apart, returning to his hard-partying self-destructive ways.” Ron eventually returns to the fight, taking on the
FDA, going toe-to-toe with the DEA, the FBI and the IRS. He actually sued the FDA in federal court in San Francisco, asserting that their actions had violated his 9th Amendment ‘right to a healthy mind.’ But in September of 1992 seven years after he had
been given 30 days to live, Ron Woodroof himself succumbs to complications from AIDS. But not after becoming a walking encyclopedia of antiviral meds, pharmaceutical trials and patents, FDA (Food and Drug Administration) regulations and court decisions. He turns his tragedy on its ear and creates something with it—however much motivated by self-interest and self-preservation—his journey benefitted and helped many others.
Dallas Buyers Club opened for wide release on November 1, check your local listings for show times. Go see this film, it is well worth your time and energy.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80