Review of Dallas Buyers Club (2013) by Dawdlingpoet — 23 Nov 2021

This is a very gritty and quite bleak film - one that doesn't gloss over the main issues of the perceptions of HIV/AIDS and homophobia in the time its set in (the mid to late 1980s). Ron comes across as loud, brash and macho - a strong willed son of a what-not, you get the idea(!). Its interesting to follow his story, to see how restrictive treatment was and the way the doctors etc. treated him, as much as (if not moreso than) his reaction to and coming to terms with his then terminal diagnosis. I found this to be an engrossing watch - it covers some difficult subjects and I didn't feel it glossed over the issues, glamorised anything or was especially 'Hollywood', which is good. Its a challenging watch, thats for sure but it does pretty well at painting a bleak picture of how things were back then. It shows how marginalised and desperate those who had been given the death sentence diagnosis of HIV were, with different people taking it differently but there being a pretty general condemnation at how the US government were dealing with medicating it and allowing (or not allowing) certain drugs, which were seen to potentially increase life longevity, to be legally obtained.

I noticed at times that to add to the feeling of isolation and degrading health, sheer desperation even, a loud ringing noise was emitted, after all background noise fades away - that gives a strong sense of claustrophobia and is quite disorientating. I think this film is quite hard hitting and I found myself almost wondering why it was so engrossing, in as much as Ron comes across as what you'd think on the outset to be quite a detestable figure - a loud mouthed, homophobic bully, so it would seem. However, I think the situation he finds himself in and his community maybe in part excuses it, or certainly its hard not to have some level of sympathy for someone who was in his situation. Although I did somewhat question the feasibility of how his case developed and eventually concluded, obviously with it being based on a true story I can't say its by no means realistic but I think it was the fact that after every so many scenes, white text on black background with the day number appeared (ie. representating however many days after Rons intitial HIV diagnosis, being originally given 30 days to live) and as it increased, I suppose I couldn't help but wonder where it was headed, when the inevitable would happen, especially considering his devil-may-care attitude at times. Having said that, there is an admirable side to what Ron did, going to great lengths, travelling outside the US to track down potential life saving drugs but how he afforded this and some of the ins and outs, im not entirely sure. I suppose it doesn't entirely matter. Ron, Tucker and Eve were the most memorable characters - Tucker and Ron getting into numerous boyish scuffles. Eve I thought was a particularly interesting character, she sort of offsets the other characters in being - well for one caring, plus non-judgemental. She's the one character that goes at lengths to stick up for the HIV positive patients and tries to reach out to help them and it shows.

I thought the performances were good and the film overall is pretty engrossing and somewhat compelling even - a true story of its time, well told.

Yes I'd recommend this film. Its quite gritty and bleak but it features good performances and I felt it was quite engrossing in general - its based on a true story and I feel its an important depiction to make, as its a story of its time and I felt it was a well made film in general. It won't suit everyone of course, due to the very strong language and drug and sex scenes but otherwise its worth a watch.