Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Jared Leto, Steve Zahn, Dallas Roberts, Michael O’Neil, Denis O’Hare, Griffin Dune, John Tabler, Jane McNeill, James DuMont, Bradford Cox, Kevin Rankin, Lawrence Turner, Matthew Thompson, Adam Dunn, Ian Cassleberry.
A lot has been made of the fact that actor Matthew McConaughey lost an incredible amount of weight to portray foul mouthed, bull riding cowboy, AIDS sufferer Ron Woodruff in the film The Dallas Buyers Club that it almost seems to have detracted from the real point of an exceptionally made film. The redemption of a man from completely unlikeable, homophobic and intolerant person at the start to somebody you would be able to sit down and have a conversation with without wanting to take to task.
For many of the cinema audiences who will make their way to their local picture house to see this film, the events of the era will still no doubt be fresh in their minds, the almost systematic alienation of a section of society, demonised by all and shunned with a sort of glass houses and rather large bucket of stones effect which seemed to run rampant through all of the media at the time.
Jared Leto swops the often thought of masculine world of Rock music, itself a misnomer in the 21st Century, for the femininity that so many try to attain as Transgendered AIDS sufferer Rayon/Raymond. It is his stunning portrayal as a person in conflict with his personal happiness as the person he sees in the mirror and a disease and a health service backed by big business that makes the film especially poignant. If Matthew McConaughey put himself through the rigours of acting hardship for his part in the film, a part that to be honest is deservedly the finest of his long career, then Jared Leto deserves just as much adulation. The way he bought compassion to the screen when confronted by the snide remarks of Ron Woodruff’s former hedonistic and disagreeable friends and the grace in which he sought in his final days, particularly when he dressed back as a man to see his father one last time was touching and brilliantly performed.
Understanding, concern and empathy have come a long way in the days since this terrible disease was first discovered, even the distinguished and celebrated Tom Hanks film Philadelphia came out at a time when views of such things were still not tolerated and in The Dallas Buyers Club, the symbolic nature of the suffering encountered by the audience will bring home sharply the devastating lengths many at the time were willing to undergo to prevent the disease taking their lives.
The audience may well have many mixed feelings about the film but it shouldn’t detract from what is essentially a piece of cinema with many messages. Compassion for one’s own species should always be high on anybody’s agenda but also the narrow view of corporations and drug companies making huge profits off the back of times of desperation should be viewed with great suspicion and even disgust. AIDS certainly was a life sentence which struck without impunity but what the governments and the makers of the drugs that were essentially killing their patients for a quick buck were doing was far, far worse.
The Dallas Buyers Club is a film of rare quality that follows in the footsteps of Philadelphia, a true cinematic experience that will never leave you.
Ian D. Hall