Lust For Life

Rating: 8/10 (9 February 2014)

One of the thoughts I had after seeing 'Dallas Buyers Club', is how quickly time passes. I remember those days of spreading aids panic quite well. Living in Amsterdam at the time, which prides itself on being the gay capital of the world, I witnessed the fear from close by. To me, this seems like not so long ago. But seeing the film, I realize it must be ancient history for many people.
It was a time when it was normal to smoke cigarettes in hospitals. When everyone still drove big, gas-guzzling cars (at least in the US). When mobile phones were a brand new innovation. When the internet didn't exist and you had to go to a local library to get information about a new disease. When homophobia was rampant. When doctors used mouth-caps when they met HIV-positive patients.
But 'Dallas Buyers Club' is more than a very good account of this crucial period in medical history. Its strength is based on the character development, as much as on the historical events. Maybe even more. Essentially this is not a film about aids, but about Ron Woodroof. He slowly transforms from a typical Texas homophobic redneck to an open-minded person who not only accepts gay persons as his friends, but even stands up for them and learns to love them in his own way. Not in a melodramatic, tear-jerking way, but naturally, without his losing his foul-mouthed and no-holds-barred lifestyle.
Much has been said about Matthew McConaughey's wonderful acting in this film. But almost just as good and remarkable is Jared Leto as his gay 'partner in crime' Rayon. Both men are complete opposites, but they find each other in their will to live, and fight the disease that threatens this ambition. Woodroof is determined to take the anti-aids treatments the FDA won't allow. By selling the semi-illegal aids drugs, he is drawn closer to the gay community most of his clients belong to.
The film focuses on the characters of Woodroof and Rayon, and less on the legal war between the FDA and the aids patients. Some of the legal aspects of the story remain shady. Why has the sale of the semi-illegal drugs to be organized through 'Buyers Clubs'? Why could Japanese companies only sell Japanese drugs to Japanese doctors? What exactly are the stakes of the final lawsuit between Woodroof and the FDA? The film doesn't spell out the answers to these questions, but that doesn't really matter. We understand the main problem: the FDA's procedures are not suitable for an immediately life-threatening disease like aids.
The story is divided in numbered days after Woodroof's diagnosis, counting from 'day 1' tot 'day 2265' or so, when he dies after seven years instead of the thirty days the doctors had given him initially. This is a nice and smart feature: the higher the day count, the more the audience supports Woodroof and his lust for life.