In September 1992, Ron Woodroof succumbed to complications from AIDS. Six years earlier, he had been given 30 days to live.
Screenwriter Craig Borten was drawn to Woodroof’s story, and that of the Dallas Buyers Club, after being pointed towards it by a friend. Woodroof set up the Dallas Buyers Club to provide AIDS patients with experimental drugs for treating the disease that could only be obtained through importation from other countries or via illegal smuggling, as they had not yet been approved for use in the United States.
Woodroof, a proud Texan, was diagnosed with HIV in 1985, as the average American was becoming increasingly aware of AIDS. The syndrome had already been assaulting the nation’s gay community for over four years; this womanizing, macho electrician was one of millions who saw AIDS only as “that gay disease.”
At age 35, Woodroof found himself shunned and ostracized by his friends and coworkers. He was dying and nearly broke. Yet he was determined to survive and, against all odds, he did, and in the process, helped save lives. In the film, Matthew McConaughey plays Ron Woodroof.
In the seven years after his diagnosis, Woodroof became a walking encyclopedia of antiviral medications, pharmaceutical trials and patents, FDA regulations and court decisions. He fought for patients’ rights, including access to alternative medicines and treatments.
The month before Woodroof’s death, Borten drove from Los Angeles to Dallas to meet him and begin work on telling his story for a movie that would ultimately take 20 years to get made, Dallas Buyers Club.
After writing letters that went unanswered, Borten phoned the Dallas Buyers Club offices. Woodroof got on the phone and told the writer to come and visit the very next day. Borten felt that the story of a homophobic cowboy who suddenly — incredibly — finds himself on the front lines of the AIDS pandemic was profound and unique. He says, “The more I found out, the more compelling it was. What interested me was having this man who goes from being extremely bigoted to having his closest friends throw that attitude right back at him — and then he evolves to learn what real friendship is and what it means. Those who accept him and support him are HIV and AIDS patients, nearly all of them gay.
“Here’s someone who gets a death sentence and turns it around, and makes these discoveries. In the process, he is changed and he helps other people. Anyone who defeats the odds is inspiring to me and that’s what Ron did. And he was a better person for it.”
Dallas Buyers Club is available starting Feb. 11 on Video On Demand. Check your cable system for availability.