Medicine Man: The Stan Brock Story
Paul Michael Angell’s stirring documentary explores how an Englishman came to assuage problems of health care in the US.
Image courtesy of Fathom Events.
The great thing about this film is Stan Brock himself. He was born in Preston, Lancashire, in 1936 but I doubt that many people in Britain have heard of him. That is not surprising however because he left England at the age of seventeen, spent some fifteen years in what was then British Guiana and thereafter passed the rest of his life in America (he died in Rockford, Tennessee, in 2018). It was in the USA that he found fame by participating in and co-hosting the NBC TV series Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. He appeared in three movies too but, as he acknowledges, they were not of any quality. Stan Brock was also an author but his most significant contribution came in 1985 when he founded the nonprofit organisation known as RAM (Remote Area Medical). It was a body made up of volunteers which first and foremost sought to bring free medical aid to those in America who were in need of it.
This film made by Paul Michael Angell has taken quite a while to reach us but that means that it was made in time for the late Stan Brock to be the central screen presence as he looks back on his life. Indeed, it could be said that this documentary comes close to being an autobiography with the words spoken rather than written. Stan himself is remarkably unassuming and willing to talk openly about what shaped him. He describes his father as a government man who was always on the move but more than that contributed to the remoteness between Stan and his emotionally undemonstrative parents. He had an unhappy time at his public school where he felt out of place and soon left. Going out on his own to British Guiana he was seeking to prove himself as a vaquero who would be acknowledged as such but, although his work there thrived and he became a foreman, the other cowboys tended to regard him as an outsider. Recognising that his upbringing had made him difficult when it came to relationships, he was seeking acceptance among these men but only partly found it.
Angell’s film recognises that the creation of RAM was the major element of Stan Brock's life since, still functioning today and using mobile clinics for which the demand was and is huge, it addresses a major concern in America. Tracing the issue of healthcare over the years the film incorporates a long montage of presidents addressing the subject from their individual viewpoints starting with Roosevelt in 1944. In more recent times Stan naturally welcomed Obamacare but was concerned that it did not extend to dentistry and eye care. Another challenge existed in dealing with restrictions on doctors and dentists crossing state lines to go where free treatment was needed.
In his telling of Stan Brock’s story featuring valuable contributions from RAM’s devoted executive director Karen Wilson along with many other volunteers and grateful patients, Angell has found an apt way to shape the material. By 2017 RAM had set out on 912 medical expeditions a fact well worth illustrating in some detail, but at the same time to pile all such footage together would be too much of a good thing. Consequently, Angell’s film starts with RAM and then at intervals inserts into footage about it Stan’s recollections in chronological order about his earlier life accompanied by photographs and pre-existing material. This ensures that the film has variety even if just occasionally it is a bit repetitive on certain points. It's also the case that as can so readily happen Angell gives us a final segment which would benefit from being more concise. This even includes his incorporating a final tribute to Stan Brock by one Sheri Tidwell which follows the end credits. What she says is patently sincere and Angell may have felt that it would be cruel to her to cut it yet everything that she says has been said already.
Watching and listening to Stan Brock one is aware that he was a good man and one is pleased to see that by the time of his death he really had found a family of his own through his relationship with the other RAM volunteers (he himself never took a salary and adopted a spartan lifestyle, even preferring to sleep not in a bed but on the floor). His story is patently worth the telling but all the more so because he openly describes how dissatisfaction with his earlier life including his failure to establish real rapport with the indigenous peoples of British Guiana led to him finding a true purpose in life by setting up and developing RAM. Outwardly a very calm man, Stan nevertheless acknowledges the psychological burden which triggered this change. His honesty makes this film a biopic with more depth than most and it is a fitting tribute to a truly remarkable man.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Featuring Stan Brock, Karen Wilson, Dr John Hendry, Anthony Vinson, Dee Bailey, Reggie Day, Ray Rueck, Terry Rueck, Andre George, Dr Joe Smiddy, David Akerberg, Dr Ben Birdwell, Larry Dietz, Sherrie Williams, Sheri Tidwell.
Dir Paul Michael Angell, Pro Vladimir V. Daniel, Victor Buhler and Paul Michael Angell, Ph Tom Goudsmit, Ed Tim Beeston, Katie Bryer, Emily West and Sky Ainsbury, Music Daniel Gadd.
Medicine Man Productions/Iambic Dream Films/Flying V Productions-Fathom Events.
96 mins. UK. 2020. US Rel: 14 November 2023. UK Rel: 4 October 2024. No Cert.
