STEVE PIECZENIK TALKS

The Blistering Threat for the Academy Awards: Dallas Buyers Club with Matthew McConaughey,  Jared Leto and Jennifer Garner.

Very rarely,   does this blogger ever reviews movies but in this particular case,   I have just watched a ‘blockbuster’.

  Many of you know my standard credentials,  as a physician/writer.    However,   I have been fortunate to become a member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences,  a fancy title for the ability to vote for the Oscars.   In my particular category of so-called ‘expertise’,   I  vote for the ‘Best Screenplay’,   and in effect,  the ‘Best Picture’.    As a result of my membership,   I receive several of the major films that are shown at the movie theaters or on Netflix/Amazon.

I rarely spend more than the first ten minutes watching a film as the quality of the script and therefore of the movie itself,  will organically reveal it’s strengths and deficits in the first ten minutes of the film.    In the movie business,   there is a very legitimate assumption that each page of a script represents one minute of shooting time.     Another basic principle of assessing the quality of a movie script is the simple dramatic ruse that within the allotted ten minutes,  the audience should recognize the protagonist;  identify the dramatic conflict that should be both compelling and intellectually interesting [this is a very difficult duo to create];  as well as surmise a potential resolution.    That’s only the first ten minutes!    Just imagine how good your script has to be.    Another movie axiom of script writing is that unlike the novel or a theater performance,   dialogue is kept at a minimum.    In fact,   the fewer the words,   the more film texture and action portrayed,   the better the movie.

In theoretical terms,  the clearest exemplar of the aforementioned principles of movie script writing would be a ‘car chase’ franchise,  "Fast and Furious" which portrays endless car chases,  car accidents and good guy-bad guy scenarios ad infinitum.    That’s why they are in general quite successful commercially speaking.

However,  once in a long while,   a film is made that completely floors me for its emotional power.    Dallas Buyer's Club immediately grabs me from the very opening shot,   where a rodeo cowboy,  Matthew McConaughey,   bereft of words and replete with images,  is mauling not one but two women in the bull stalls, while in the distance I can see the bull rider and clown performing.

You have to see what I saw.

  It’s not the sex itself which was quite graphic.    But the story then evolves again with few words and many dramatic confrontations about a rodeo cowboy who is homophobic and becomes infected with HIV because of his incessant unprotected sex and drug addiction.

No knee slapper here! 

  For a moment in the film,   I thought  I was going to listen to a message or narrative on the ‘evils of AIDS’.    Fortunately,   for the screenplay writers,  Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack,   they avoid this classical trap.    As Jack Warner once sent one of his writers a note which said something like this:  'If you want me to receive a message,  please send me a telegram.   We are writing a ‘movie picture'.

You get the idea.

Next I watched the camera work of Director Jean-Marc Vallee which was sparse, intense, and highly textured.    Each frame of the film suffused with emotion,  meaning and even symbolism ---yes,  without being heavy handed.    I find out that the director is French Canadian,  born and raised in Quebec.    Again,   I asked myself,  still in a respectful trance of professional awe,   how can a ‘French Canadian’ know so much about Texas and cowboys?
  Clearly,  I was being provincial and myopic.

  But as the issue of how Ron Woodruff survives the doctor’s prognosis of death in thirty days because of his AIDS is  one of the most forceful dramatic actions that I have ever seen in a movie.    Without revealing too much,  the film dares to courageously indict medicine,  the FDA,  and Big Pharma,  all the while refusing to descend into maudlin emotions or congratulatory self-pity.    In fact,  the entrepreneurial skills of the Ron Woodruff to obtain all kinds of ameliorative medicines for himself and his fellow ‘infected prisoners’ makes one of the most intriguing,  original narratives that I had seen.     Moreover,  the fact that my fellow physicians,  the FDA,  and Big Pharma are portrayed accurately as ‘arrogant’,  ‘ignorant’ and ‘dangerous’ made the film even more engrossing for me.

  Then we must talk about the ACTING!
  We all saw,  Robert De Niro gain weight as Jake LaMotta in the Martin Scorcese brilliant homage, "Raging Bull".    But to watch,  McConaughey embody the physical, emotive personification of an emaciated AIDS victim---is a ‘wonder to behold’!    Not only is McConaughey the ‘body/face of AIDS’  but his co-star,   Jared Leto,  is equally brilliant in his incredible portrayal of a Drag Queen with AIDS.

The Dallas Buyers Club,  in my humble opinion as one of six thousand voters,  should win:

[1]  The Best Film.

[2]  The Best Screen Play.

[3]  The Best Director.

[4]  The Best Male Actor.

[5]  The Best Supporting Male Actor.

  Having given you my assessment of the film,  let me also tell you,  that in ten years of voting,  I have lost every time.     This time, for the sake of a great film,   I hope that I am right.    Congratulations to all who were involved in the making of this movie.     No matter what happens on Oscar night,  all of you involved in the making of the Dallas Buyers Club,  are definitely….. WINNING FILM MAKERS!!
  Bien Fait!!  Monsieur,  Le Directeur!  Sois fier!