Description
This thesis explores the visual aspects of and the discourse surrounding Dallas Buyers Club to understand the function of the film. The narrative focuses on Ron Woodroof, who is diagnosed with HIV in 1985. Ron identifies as a heterosexual man and he is constructed with hegemonic masculine qualities from the very beginning of the film. The release of the film involved kairos, as the timing of film is relevant to consider in terms of current social and political perspectives on gender, identity, and sexuality. The disease presents a threat to his masculinity, which he is forced to renegotiate as a result. In this way, Ron is presented with a crisis of masculinity. This thesis focuses on the documentary style that is utilized in the film, which creates an illusion of reality and authenticity. Due to this style of film, the narrative calls for more emotional involvement and identification from the audience. The main characters, which the audience is asked to identify with, represent the abject through their visibly diseased bodies; they are cast as the "other" and remind the viewer of inevitable death. Typically, the abject functions to allow the rest of the healthy audience to feel superior while marginalizing particular groups of people. Through Ron's identity crisis, he comes to represent abject masculinity because the disease threatens his hegemonic positionality. The audience is then asked to identify with the abject through the pseudo-documentary style of the film. This thesis will focus on the filming techniques to analyze the function of identification through representations of the abject in Dallas Buyers Club.
