I must confess that I sat through #DallasBuyersClub on #NetflixIndia without realizing that the Marlboro man lookalike playing the protagonist was indeed #MathewMcConaughey. The actor lost a good sixty pounds for the role of this Texas redneck who fights the American health-care system of the Reagan era. He smuggles in non-approved drugs and forms a club of HIV-infected patients who get access to the medicines by being part of his ‘club’.
ASHOK’s FIVE reviews a unique story of medical activism; #DallasBuyersClub is written by #CraigBorten and #MelissaWallach and directed by #JeanMarcVallee. This is the real-life story of Ron Woodruff, a promiscuous low-life electrician and rodeo-rider in Texas of 1985.
#MathewMcConaughey plays the role of Ron to perfection. He is a homophobic, heterosexual cowboy living on the edge. He runs on cigarettes, alcohol, sex and arrogance with an occasional shot of coke and can’t stand the ‘faggots’. He is diagnosed with HIV-Aids and is told that he has only 29 days to live. He refuses to accept status-quo and transforms into an agile, driven rebel, smuggling in drugs from Mexico and helping other HIV patients. In order to circumvent ‘selling’, he charges ‘entry-fees’ for the club and provides succour to thousands of HIV-afflicted patients.
Ron’s bromance with an unlikely Rayon, a transsexual played with aplomb by #JaredLeto. Rayon is eclectic, in-your-face full on attitude and forms a bond with Ron, partnering him in his venture. Ron, however, is shown as a selfish and self-centric boor focussed only on his motives.
Along the way, there is a platonic romantic interest as well; the doctor Eve Saks played by #JenniferGarner.
The film exposes the hypocrisy of the staid and bureaucratic American medical system as they continue to plug the AZT doses that don’t really have an impact. Ron takes on this institution and proves them wrong. He is not on the right side of the law and has no qualms about it but goes to become a shining messiah for the thousands of patients of that era. A story waiting to be told and told so well!
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