This is the story of Stan Brock, legendary man of action. An environmentalist, actor and philanthropist he founded Remote Area Medical in 1985. RAM was set up to bring free medical care to anyone poor areas. It would come into an are and over the course of several days give anyone who stopped by the medical care they needed (short of dealing with more serious issues like cancer).
The film follows Brock over several years before his death as he traveled around from RAM event to RAM event being the greeter and point man for the operation. As we watch Brock go through his paces he talks about his life and his achievements (including hosting Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom).
I liked MEDICINE MAN. As a portrait of Brock and a look at the RAM operation it’s quite good. It’s a quasi-observational documentary. I’m not sure that is what the film was aiming for, I think it was hoping to tie the need for better and affordable health care into the story but I’m not certain that it really does as it should. The problem is the film is so low key and so observational it never really makes the plea something we truly hear.
That doesn’t make it a bad film, it just makes it something other than what I think the filmmakers were hoping for which is just a portrait of Brock.
That said, it’s still worth a look.
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