Of Work Hazards

Rating: 8/10 (9 April 2014)

'I still got HIV?'
The naivety forged in that one line alone has made me regain my faith in McConaughey, he has my respect as an actor again.
The film starts in 1985 with the news of Rock Hudson being treated for HIV in a Paris hospital (on a newspaper dated July 25th; Hudson died on October 2nd, same year) and his sexual preference.
'D'ya hear Rock Hudson was a cock sucker?'. 'All that fine Hollywood pussy just bein' wasted on a guy who smokes his f*cking friends.' - McConaughey spews those lines with pristine hate and disgust. This is where we begin to understand Woodroof.
Back in the Eighties the disease was widely associated with homosexuals and bisexuals. It was perceived to be contained within the latter community. AIDS was taboo, it still is and this film tells us the true story of Ron Woodroof; a rodeo, a hustler and a promiscuous drug addict whose discrimination against gay people and racial slurs are as potent as a Black Mamba's bite.
As we move on we sense the red-tape, the payoffs and the FDA regulations, which bar better and safer medicines to help AIDS patients lead normal life compared to patients being treated (still) with AZT; a prescription drug that gives temporary relief and an earlier death by decreasing the T cells and the overall immunity of the body. Woodroof heads to Mexico to smuggle in the safer, more effective medicines. The immigration interrogation scenes are ingenious.
Jared Leto has always been one of my favourite underdogs, right from 'Requiem for a Dream, 2000' to 'Alexander, 2004' and now this. His range is wide and carries a sense of mysterious sensuality with it. Oliver Stone realised that. In 'Club', Leto is brilliant, confident and quite appropriately dressed for the part that he pulls off as smooth as a hustle hand. He also made a cameo in 'Fight Club (1999)'. What are the chances of that?
As Woodroof develops full blown AIDS, he changes. The change is shown in many ways. The film reaches out to us and simply tells us how and what is it like on the other side of sunshine.
As Woodroof's entrepreneurship grows it faces prosecution from the FDA, the IRS and the police but it also gives people time to live 'normal' lives. A once hardened country-boy, cowboy will always be that, even if the odds are perpetually against him.
Rediscover McConaughey and revel in the tale of one determined son of a bitch who, by the end, is frail and exhausted yet he puts on his aviators, grabs the long braided ropes on the bull and dives right into the deep of saddle bronc riding; however, not before a slight nod that he slips into the scene. A nod that stays with you for a long time.