The Medicine Man

The film “Medicine Man” gives a very clear indication of the consequences of habitat destruction. In the film, a professor and his research assistant sets out to find a plant that holds the cure of cancer, only to have it destroyed by land clearing in the Amazon Basin. The land clearing also severely disrupts the peaceful, sustainable lifestyle of a tribe of natives and a huge amount of flora and fauna. It shows us the damage we wrought with our deforestation on a slightly exaggerated, nut no less effective scale.



The main idea of the film is to show habitat destruction and its impacts on the environment. It succeeds in showing the rapid rate at which logging and land–clearing is taking place. Such human activities impact heavily on the native flora, fauna and people. The natives are unable to adjust to their deteriorating environment, as a result, the flora and fauna are completely wiped out and the indigenous people are either forced to move to other parts of the forest or into the city. One of these options heightens the competition between tribes and animals for resources while the other is totally unrealistic, as most native people have no education and do not have the skills to survive city life. Wealthy corporations usually commission such land–clearings and use the land for farming. However they do not think about the native plants, animals and people who have more right to the land than they do.



The film also highlights the difference between the city modern, city lifestyle and the lifestyle of the native people. The people of the city live more luxuriously than the native people, but their lifestyle is not sustainable. The “city people” suck their environment dry in order to gain their creature comforts, while the native people make a minimal impact on their environment, only taking what they need. The environment can cope with the impacts made by the indigenous people but not the city dwellers. As a result, the environment...