Dallas Buyers Club (2013)
Oscar Nominations: 6
Best Picture
Best Actor: Matthew McConaughey
Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto
Best Original Screenplay
Best Editing
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Oscar Awards: 2
Best Actor
Best Supporting Actor
Directed by Canadian Jean-Marc Vallee’s Dallas Buyers Club is inspired by fact based events, which writers Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack turned into a captivating original screenplay.
Matthew McConaughey stars as Ron Woodroof, a person with AIDS, who was diagnosed in the early 1980s, when there was no HIV treatment, and the disease was largely misunderstood and stigmatized.
As part of the experimental AIDS treatment movement, Ron smuggled unapproved pharmaceutical drugs into Texas for treating his symptoms. He also distributed them to other people with AIDS by establishing the “Dallas Buyers Club,” despite opposition from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
To make the movie more interesting dramatically, the story adds two fictional characters, Dr. Eve Saks (Jennifer Garner), and transgender Rayon (Jared Leto), which were composite roles based on interviews with transgender, people with AIDS, activists, and doctors.
Bill Minutaglio wrote the first magazine article of “The Dallas Buyers Club” in 1992, which featured interviews with Woodroof and recreated his dramatic adventures and and exploits.
Scribe Borten interviewed Woodroof in 1992, and wrote the script, which he later refined with colleague Wallack in 2000, before selling it to producer Robbie Brenner.
In 2009, Brenner approached Matthew McConaughey who, among other reasons, also hails from Texas, just like Woodroof.
The modestly budgeted film was shot in New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
Release
Dallas Buyers Club, which premiered at the 2013 Toronto Film Fest, was distributed by Focus Features in limited release November 1, and then wide release November 22.
Commercial Appeal:
The film grossed over $27 million domestically and $27.9 million internationally, against a budget of $5 million.
It earned over $4.5 million from DVD sales, and over $3 million from Blu-ray sales.
Oscar Records:
Buyers Dallas Club became the first film since Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River in 2003 to win both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor.
In the Academy’s history, only 5 films have achieved that record.
