History Film / DallasBuyersClub

* ADateWithRosiePalms: Ron's motel room/office has a wall decorated for this purpose.

* NiceHat: Ron is rarely seen without a stetson.

%%* TheEighties

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* CorruptCorporateExecutive: The businesspeople behind the use of AZT to treat patients come across pretty badly, and the audience gets a sense that they just want to move as much product as possible no matter what actually happens to AIDS victims. This falls into StrawmanHasAPoint given that AZT ''is'' a legitimately helpful drug but given out in the wrong way (the bright Dr. Saks realizes this and changes dosages to her own patients).

* StrawmanBall: ''None'' of the characters who support the FDA's drug policies present a reasonable argument of why drug approval is so slow, even though BothSidesHaveAPoint. For instance, someone could have mentioned that it was Dr. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Oldham_Kelsey Frances Kelsey]] of the FDA who blocked the swift approval of the drug thalidomide in the 1960s and thus spared America from the wave of horrific infant birth defects that occurred around the world when pregnant women took the drug. The difference here, [[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped as the judge states near the end,]] is that if you have a terminal illness, you really have nothing to lose, and the law should reflect that.

The film is [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory based on the true story]] of Ron Woodroof ([=McConaughey=]), an electrician and rodeo fan who discovers in 1985 that he has HIV, when a workplace accident lands him in the hospital. After learning that the trial drug AZT, which he had been taking to treat himself, was ineffective, Woodroof begins smuggling unapproved drugs, first from Mexico and then further afield. With the help of Rayon (Leto), an HIV-positive transgender woman, Woodroof establishes the Dallas Buyers Club, dealing in drugs to help HIV-AIDS sufferers. Though Woodroof is opposed by the FDA, who attempt to shut down his operation, he finds support from Eve Saks (Garner), a doctor at a local hospital participating in the AZT trial. Saks witnesses first hand the attempts by pharmaceutical reps to get the drug FDA-approved and on the market, despite signs that the drug is proving ineffective in treating her patients, while causing significant, severe side effects.

* BackAlleyDoctor: Doctor Vass qualifies. He's practicing in Mexico because his medical license was revoked in the US. With access to a wider variety of drugs than he'd have in the States however, he's also able to prescribe superior drug treatments for Ron's HIV.

* BingeMontage: Ron's initial reaction to his HIV diagnosis is to go on a drug and alcohol binge with his best friend and a couple of prostitutes. This gets played when when Ron avoids actually having sex with them.

* TheDeterminator: Ron travels around the world meeting with doctors and pharmaceutical reps to get the drugs he wants imported into the United States. After initially being told that he had just 30 days to live after his diagnosis, he actually lived a further ''seven years'' before finally succumbing to AIDS, and along the way fought against the FDA in court to allow him to bring the drugs into the country.

* TheHedonist: Ron fits this to a T at the beginning. He still swigs shots of whiskey and takes lines of coke with the AZT pills, but as time goes on his CharacterDevelopment softens things, pushing him to the point to where he's actually lecturing other patients ''against'' addiction.

** A lot of the TV sets that appear look a lot more recent than models from the mid eighties.

* StrawmanBall: ''None'' of the characters who support the FDA's drug policies present a reasonable argument of why drug approval is so slow, even though BothSidesHaveAPoint. For instance, someone could have mentioned that it was Dr. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Oldham_Kelsey Frances Kelsey]] of the FDA who blocked the swift approval of the drug thalidomide in the 1960s, and thus spared America from the wave of horrific infant birth defects that occurred around the world when pregnant women took the drug. The difference here, [[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped as the judge states near the end,]] is that if you have a terminal illness, you really have nothing to lose, and the law should reflect that.

* BuryYourGays: Only after [[spoiler: Rayon's death]] does Ron truly have a change of heart, and begins to show compassion towards gay, lesbian, and transgender members of the club.

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''Dallas Buyers Club'' is a 2013 drama starring Creator/MatthewMcConaughey, Creator/JaredLeto, and Creator/JenniferGarner. It was directed by Jean-Marc Vallee.

* BuryYourGays: Only after [[spoiler: Rayon's death]] does Ron truly have a change of heart, and begins to show compassion towards gay, lesbian, and transgender members of the club.

* OnceAcceptableTargets: Rayon, a transgender woman. Despite the film pushing the idea of a friendship between her and Ron, most of Rayon's scenes involve her being the butt of Ron's jokes, making references to her genitalia, and frequently misgendering her.

''Dallas Buyers Club'' is a 2013 drama starring Creator/MatthewMcConaughey, Creator/JaredLeto, and Creator/JenniferGarner. It was directed by Creator/Jean-MarcVallee.

* EightiesHair: Particularly on the hookers.

* AtomicFBomb: The scene where Ron is researching in the library and realizes he had most likely acquired HIV through unprotected sex with a hooker.

* BingeMontage: Ron's initial reaction to his HIV diagnosis is to go on a drug and alcohol binge with his best friend and a couple of prostitutes.

* TheHedonist: Ron at the beginning, but he still swigs shots of whiskey and takes lines of coke with the AZT pills.

* PornStache: Ron. With black hat and sunglasses he looks an awful lot like Richard Petty.
* PrecisionFStrike: From Jennifer Garner: "I'm a fucking doctor."

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Woodroof is seen having sex with women and maintains throughout the film that he is straight, though there are [[http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/01/17/was_dallas_buyers_club_s_ron_woodroof_gay_or_bisexual_friends_and_doctor.html reports]] that he was [[NoBisexuals bisexual]] in RealLife. The characters Rayon and Eve Saks are not based on anyone specific, but are {{composite character}}s based respectively on AIDS patients and doctors who knew Woodroof.

** The FDA never raided Woodroof per se, and several individuals shared a usually cooperative relationship with him. Woodroof also bought into quack remedies that could have killed him and his patients, and that's what ended up getting him the biggest push-back.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The hospital janitor who smuggles out the AZT to Ron. It's a fair assumption they didn't speak or have contact once he told Ron he wasn't going to sell him anymore AZT, and Ron tried to punch him.

''Dallas Buyers Club'' is a 2013 drama starring Creator/MatthewMcConaughey, Creator/JaredLeto, and Creator/JenniferGarner. It was directed by Creator/Jean-MarcVallée.

* ActionSurvivor: Ron was pretty much brought to the brink of death and saved himself and countless others without being a qualified physician, or biologist, or pharmacist and lacking both significant amounts of money and formal education in medical stuff. In just a few months he [[TookALevelInBadass Took A Level In Intellectual Badass]].
* AnAesop: While the FDA's regulations against untested medicines are well-meaning and in some cases disaster-averting, like the thalidomide scare in the 60s, here they end up doing a lot more harm than good, and as the ReasonableAuthorityFigure judge states near the end of the film, even if the experimental meds end up having side effects, the AIDS victims who need them are ''dying'' and thus have nothing to lose by gambling with a new drug, and the law should reflect that.

* HookersAndBlow: Ron and a friend indulge right after Ron's diagnosis. However he belatedly stops short of sexual contact.

* MightyWhitey: Ron is a straight white guy working hard to save the lives of LGBT people suffering from the same illness as him.

* ThreeWaySex: The film opens with Ron having sex with two women in a rodeo stall. Later his friend T.J. is seen having sex with a pair of prostitutes after Ron passes up on them.

''Dallas Buyers Club'' is a 2013 drama starring Creator/MatthewMcConaughey, Creator/JaredLeto and Creator/JenniferGarner.

Most praised were the performances of [=McConaughey=] (for whom the film proved a particularly epic CareerResurrection) and Leto, who received the Academy Award for Best Actor and for Best Supporting Actor, respectively, making this only the fifth movie ever to win both awards.

* HeelRealization: Ron starts to realise what a homophobic asshole he is when Rayon turns down his drugs because "You don't deserve our money".
* HitlerCam: Inverted. Aside from dieting to starvation to be thin enough, the 6ft tall Matthew [=McConaughey=] is nearly always filmed from a slightly elevated angle to appear smaller and thinner.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Hidden under quite a lot of homophobic racist sexist asshole, but Ron eventually reveals himself to be this trope
* LoopholeAbuse : "I don't sell drugs. I sell memberships. Welcome to [[TitleDrop the Dallas Buyers' Club]]."

* PornStache: Ron, who with black hat and sunglasses looks an awful lot like Richard Petty.
* PrecisionFStrike : From Jennifer Garner: "I'm a fucking doctor."

** Woodroof states one biggest regrets is he never had kids. However, the actual Woodroof was married and had a daughter.
** The FDA never raided Woodroof, and shared a usually cooperative relationship with him. Woodroof also bought into quack remedies that could have killed him.

The film proved a particularly epic CareerResurrection for [=McConaughey=], won an Oscar for his performance, as did Leto. As a note, be cautious when editing tropes pertaining to this movie.

* BeautyInversion : Most of the women, including Jennifer Garner, are decidedly un-glamourous.

* ThreeWaySex: The film opens with Ron having sex with two women in a rodeo stall. Later his friend Clint is seen having sex with a pair of prostitutes after Ron passes up on them.

* TookALevelInKindness: Ron starts the film as a homophobic {{jerkass}}, but when he starts dealing drugs and spending more time with Rayon and his largely-gay clientele, he begins to see what an asshole he was. The turnaround is evident when he runs into his old friend Clint while grocery shopping with Rayon. After Clint refuses to shake Rayon's hand, Ron is offended and decides to teach him a lesson.

* ADateWithRosiePalms: Ron's motel room/office has a wall decorated for this purpose.

** ScienceMarchesOn: At some point in the film, Ron and the doctor discuss the limited options they have, and they say something like: [=HIV=] does not kill people by itself, it destroys the immune system and leave other germs to slowly kill (which is well known nowadays, but still unclear when [=AIDS=] research was still rudimentary in [[TheEighties the 1980s]]) and does this even quicker on [[HoistByHisOwnPetard a man whose immune system had been previously degraded by drug use]], ''so they did not need drugs to kill the virus, but drugs to strengthen the patient's body and immune system''. This is an in-universe moment of FridgeBrilliance: why on Earth did professional physicians use a toxic drug to (hopefully) cure the virus, when the most sorely needed thing was to nurse the patients to a state healthy enough to walk and work, even for the price of leaving them [=HIV=]-positive?

''Dallas Buyers Club'' is a 2013 drama starring Creator/MatthewMcConaughey, [[ThirtySecondsToMars Jared Leto]] and Creator/JenniferGarner.

Controversy struck the film after [=McConaughey=] and Leto won Oscars for their performances. As a note, be cautious when editing tropes pertaining to this movie.