Day 127 - Gringo: The Dangerous Life of John McAfee

Day 127          Gringo: The Dangerous Life of John McAfee [2016]

                          

Director                         Nanette Burstein

Cinematography            Robert Chappell

Subject                          A journey into the life of former antivirus software mogul John McAfee, with particular focus on his suspicious life in Belize.   

Production                     Showtime Networks

IMDb                                6.7/10

Rotten Tomatoes                100%

There is a web of lies surrounding this movie and I can’t quite make my mind up about who it is telling the truth. One thing is for sure though – John McAfee is not quite right in the head. This documentary picks apart this software millionaire focusing on his weird years in Belize where he hired a personal army, slept with a harem of teenage girls, potentially raped a former employee and possibly hired an assassin to kill one of his neighbours. All of this in between creating the McAfee antivirus software, becoming a Yoga guru, running for Presidency and now becoming some kind of crypto-currency genius. You can’t say he’s boring. The reason that I am not sitting here writing poison about McAfee, as the documentary should have me doing, is because there are plenty of rumours about Showtime paying people to say what they wanted to hear. Belize is not a rich country, and the Belizeans that McAfee was hanging out with in Carmelita were certainly the corruptible type. It makes sense therefore that when a documentary crew offers you large sums of money to talk ill of a former employer, under no legally binding circumstances, you would probably say whatever they wanted. The plot thickens as we learn Allison Adonizio and the documentary’s executive producer Jeff Wise were romantically involved. You would also think that Adonizio would do more than just talk about the rape allegation in a documentary, perhaps press charges or seek further help with it, especially as women have rightly begun to speak out about the appalling crimes and misconducts of men. I don’t mean to be insensitive, but it just seems strange to me that more hasn’t been done since the documentary aired to punish McAfee for all of his supposed crimes. Perhaps it is because of the lawless nature of Belize and the lack of US jurisdiction there. There’s no denying that McAfee has a screw loose and I was certainly not on his side. The way that he handles Burstein is just downright strange, he clearly doesn't want to talk to her, and yet revels in the attention she gives him. There is certainly a 'Heart of Darkness' theme in his dream jungle life which he himself mentions in one particular clip. How does America let men like this get away with, well, murder and rape? I couldn't help but make an eery comparison to Trump whilst I watched this. It's important to remember that Showtime are incredibly partisan, they don't show any good side to McAfee, which devalues the documentary slightly. Either way it is definitely worth a watch.

Subject Matter                    3 / 4

Shock Factor                   3.5 / 4

Production                          3 / 4

Music                              1.5 / 4

HWF rating                   3 / 4