The journey of Ron Woodroof is one from a stereotypical cowboy type to a man who seeks justice through healing and healing through justice for all those ostracized by having AIDS in the 1980s. Woodroof is diagnosed with AIDS that he contracted from sleeping with an intravenous drug user two years prior. Despite contracting the disease in this fashion his family and friends believe that he got it from being a gay man having sex with other men. The film opens us up to the reality that AIDS was a disease that was not understood by anyone in the 1980s, while many were quick to blame the gay community for it.
Ron meets Rayon, a transgender woman who he eventually goes into business with. They form The Dallas Buyers Club to allow AIDS patients the ability to purchase drugs that will actually prolong their lives. Through this relationship comes the revelation of how society has violently blamed the gay community for something that no one truly knows how it originated. Themes of compassion, justice and healing dominate the narrative as Ron and Rayon become friends and Ron changes from a cowboy to a man who understands another for who they are, not what they appear to be.
The film is ever more meaningful as it is based on the true account of Ron Woodroof's journey to prolong his life and his fight against the FDA. We see that his life is enriched by the compassion he's able to learn to have for those he doesn't understand, while also becoming part of the fight for those who seek to live in dire circumstances as they are not only faced with the insurmountable challenge of overcoming AIDS interpersonally, but also on the level of being part of a society governed by rules set by the FDA. We see the Food and Drug Administration as necessary and how it creates corruption through the drug companies greed which spills over into hospitals through trials. We watch as people get rich off of death and Dr. Saks represents the need to stand up and oppose this way of healing. Finally the judge in Woodroof's trial represents the reality that the human being in the robe can have compassion but the law which he must operate within does not permit him to grant a win to Woodroof. The point is not that the fight is overwhelming and cannot be won, it is that we must pick up where those that came before us left off. This is a generational fight in which every link, no matter how many losses, matters greatly to the overall purpose of justice truly coming forth for all people.
