Gringo: The Dangerous Life of John McAfee (2016)

Truly Dreadful Film

Just perfect...

As Good As It Gets

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Incredibly brave Nanette. Brilliant. He does not respresent decent Americans and we as Americans should send him back to answer for what he is accused. When someone kills on our soil we want other countries to honor our extradition. HE KILLED AN AMERICAN as well a LOCAL MAN. Just thank you god there was no sex tape! You will understand once you watch this.

This documentary about the life of John McAfee reminded me of the movie 'The Mosquito Coast'; a maverick, libertarian American travels to central America and becomes very strange. In the case of McAfee, who developed the world's first anti-virus computer software, said "strangeness" involves bizarre sexual practices, a permanent escort of armed guards, and allegations of rape and murder. Yet McAfee returned to the U.S. and an apparent life of contemporary respectability. Nanette's Burnstein's documentary isn't perfect: I don't think much of her interview technique, and she credits a failed bid for the Liberartarian Party of America's nomination for the U.S. presidency with rather more seriousness than it deserves. But it's still a compelling story, whose ending if foreshadowed very early on when we learn of the unconventional practices among the staff of the McAfee company from it's earliest days: those interviewed remember the competition to see who could get laid on their desktops most frequently with fondness, but it seems of a piece with McAfee's later, more disturbing behaviour. Overall, it's a lesson that too much money never really does anyone good; but it's even worse if you get in the way of the person who has it.

What i was hoping would be a journalistic piece turned out to be a pop-documentary and assassination piece.Stylistically it is very slick, however uses elements similar to shows like MTV's Catfish, with cheap animated email snippets.As a journalistic piece this documentary is very poor. Something from the offset does not ring true with the interviews, there are many inconsistencies which go unquestioned. At one point when interviewing Johns ex-girlfriends they all just happen to have the exact same story, one even says she was payed for sex and then says she never actually had sex with him (claiming only to have done other stuff), it feels like they interviewer is prompting towards it. At no point do the makers even attempt to come across as unbiased, When interviewing what they claim to be the actual murderer, he presents them with an alibi for the murder, which they openly state in the documentary they didn't bother investigating. The opening of the documentary is even dash cam footage of Mcafee being arrested, which at no point is made relevant, shortly followed after by the question; "is John simply a master manipulator?". At no point either are any of Johns claims investigated despite the fact there does seem to be evidence towards them in the free press and what could of been a very interesting thread of the story (John being intimidated for $2 million dollars by a government official and days later being raided by an elite police unit.One of the most compelling parts of the story is about how John treated a female American botanist, though again this story has a falsity that it is hard to place a finger on. The documentary does not challenge or attempt to question aspects of her story. She states that after an incident she "smashes the vials so John could hurt anybody", the documentarian never asks why or what the vials were.More than that defeating the legitimacy of this documentary are the various interviews with people from it, either claiming to have been lied to by the director or producing receipts showing they had been payed by Nanette (simply check YouTube), including one produced by "Mac-10", who on the documentary it was claimed fled the country.The most painful part is when she confronts Mcafee while running for president and seems delight in making him uncomfortable.I did not mean for this to be such a negative point of view or an attempt to defeat what is presented. The documentary lays out and presents the arc and story of Johns life very well, focusing on the period of his life spent in South America. It is well filmed and put together, however journalistic-ally it is lacking and seems quite happy to make no attempt to really investigate anything.Worth watching, especially if you are not aware of who John Mcafee is but with a large pinch of salt and a little extract research on the side.

I'm a bit hesitant when documentary filmmakers include themselves in the film their making. But in this case filmmaker Nanette Burstein straddles that line nicely, particularly when the subject of her film won't talk to her! But McAfee does..... via email. And near the end of the film when she is able to "corner" her subject, the result is interestingly captured all on camera. Her persistence in tracking down witnesses, friends and associates is admirable and the results speak for themselves. Is John McAfee crazy? a brilliant media provocateur? A computer genius? All three? I won't spoil anything, but let me just say that the interviews with the "girlfriends" was probably one of the most shocking and disgusting things I have ever heard in my life. Let's leave it at that. In conclusion, the documentary held my interest and was well-produced.