MORE ABOUT DALLAS BUYERS CLUB

Gentle Readers . . . and Maxwell,

If you don't want to know more about the reality of the Dallas Buyers Club until you've seen the film, then hold off on reading this post.

Our good friend Pickleope made a very important comment about my review of the movie (which you can read HERE):

It's a good movie, but it's problematic. They gloss over the fact 

that the very drug he was fighting against, AZT, was 

effective once adjusted for human consumption (the reason 

scientists have no choice but to do human trials) and is one of the 

real reasons that people with HIV/AIDS are living longer. They 

didn't know to cut the dosage in half back at the beginning. But 

thanks to their trials, they do now. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/12/10/what-dallas-buyers-club-got-wrong-about-the-aids-crisis/?tid=pm_business_pop

And the main character, Ron Woodruff, they make out to seem 

like a good-ol-boy homophobe who comes around to be gay-

friendly. But there are differing accounts between friends of 

Woodruff and his biographer

. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/10612550/Dallas-Buyers-Club-The-not-so-straight-truth.html Who knows which account is true?

The depiction in the movie of him as a homophobe creates the

 issue of the message being that gay people needed the benevolent

heterosexual to save the poor, Aids-stricken gays. It undercuts all

the hard work of the gay community in elevating themselves.

It's not to say Woodruff and his story doesn't matter. His struggle

 mattered. He was one of the many Aids sufferers who fought 

against persecution to bring attention to the plight of what was 

called "the gay disease". He was frustrated at the system and 

being marginalized. That, the movie got oh so right. But he was a 

self-aggrandizing opportunist. It doesn't mean it negates 

everything he did. It's just a lot more nuanced than the movie 

leads you to believe. Damn, I'm long-winded.

Short summary: Good movie, but calling it a true story does a

 disservice to the real and big picture of the story. Great acting,

 though, quite amazing.

A good summary:

 http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/feb/12/dallas-buyers-club-

accurate-matthew-mcconaughey

Sorry for pontificating, but everyone has one of those things that 

touches something within.

Pickleope, I don't see you as a pontificating, nor do you need to

apologize. I have pointed out in the past that a movie purported to 

be a true story or based on a true story may not have a particle of

truthiness in it. I should have said so when I reviewed Dallas 

Buyers Club.

No such person as Rayon (Jared Leto) existed. Ron Woodroof 

(Matthew McConaughey) hung out with gay men all the time and 

probably was not homophobic. In fact, some of his friends think he

might have had relationships with other men.

This is what the real Ron Woodroof looked like as the disease took 

its toll on him:

Also, I found this amusing video about the Dallas Buyers Club and economics:

So please keep in mind that Dallas Buyers Club is a great movie, in my opinion, but it's not entirely true. You can learn more about the real Ron Woodroof simply by Googling him.

For me, the story is important and I'm glad it was told because of the lack of reaction to the AIDS crisis when it began. It supposedly was a scourge gay men brought on themselves by sinning. If the lead character in this film were gay, I suspect the story might not have made it to the big screen. Remember Soderbergh's movie about Liberace that ended up on HBO?

Thank you, Pickleope, and Gentle Readers, please educate yourselves if you want to discuss the early days of AIDS and the lack of treatment. Don't cite facts based on what you see in Dallas Buyers Club.


Infinities of love,

Janie Junebug