When does life become real? When is that startling moment of clarity where you realize that life as you had been living it previously was not the best use of this one and only life you have? Often this happens when death or the threat of death is knocking down your door and yelling at you. What if you then encountered hope – an opportunity to make your life, something worthy and beautiful? Would you fight for that?
Dallas Buyer’s Club is the real life story of one man’s encounter with real life and how his fight for his own life leads to a fight for the lives of others. Set at the beginning of the AIDS crisis, circa 1985, Dallas Buyer’s Club follows the story of a rough and tough rodeo man name Ronald Woodroof who contracts the HIV virus. By the time he is made aware he is HIV positive, Ronald is given only weeks to live, something this archetypal Texas “man’s man” can’t accept.
Ronald is one of the outliers in the early advent of AIDS where it was thought that the disease was only for homosexuals and drug addicts. The diagnosis comes out of left field. As he begins to acknowledge the fact that he really is sick and doesn’t want to die, Ronald uses his well-honed con artist and working man skills to seek out alternatives to the bleak diagnosis he is given at the hospital.
I grew up in the 80’s and 90’s, so this historical period is one that I acutely remember through. Sitting in a dark theatre over the Christmas holiday weekend taking in this story of brave people who didn’t want to die, I recalled my own growing awareness of HIV and AIDS. The horror of many youthful nights thinking “what if” and aching for the friends of friends who lost their lives to this horrific disease. No one deserves this death, and especially the way it happened during the early stages of the epidemic.
During that period, fear and misinformation ran rapid and left aching hearts and bodies in need of tender love and physical touch isolated and cut off from what was most needed. Additionally, there was all the bureaucratic red tape, fear-mongering, and lack of cooperation for the care and treatment of dying people. Not only were you dying by yourself, you were being fed test treatments and told that you weren’t able to have medications and other treatments that could help you feel better because “the government” is looking out for your best interests (which, incidentally, happens to align with the interests of large pharmaceutical companies).
All of the experiences of the characters in this film seem to mirror the experiences of my best friend today. For the last four years, she has been fighting Lyme disease, a destructive and debilitating disease. She and others like her have faced similar struggles as these early HIV/AIDS patients did, specifically with the CDC and the FDA in regard to their treatment and care.
What stands out to me about these people is that, in the midst of the uphill battle, they creatively and determinedly live and live well. Ron and my best friend are two people who will not sit down in the face of rapidly approaching death. Rather, they stand their ground, and they fight.
People who are facing death offer a challenge to those of us who are blessed with health. Their fierceness and determination says, “Life is beautiful and worth the wonder of every moment.” In Ron’s case, his fight for his own life also leads him to community and communal care in a way that he might never have encountered without his struggle. In Dallas Buyer’s Club, a life lived connected to others is beautiful.