“Running with the Devil: The Wild World of John McAfee” (2022)
“Hello. I’m John McAfee”
“Hello. I’m John McAfee”
I’ve been an avowed lover of documentaries and documentary films stretching back as far as some of my earliest childhood memories and huddling next to a fire in the dead of winter when on a Sunday evening, the ITV channel here in the UK would show re-runs of the 1973 behemoth documentary series The World at War narrated by Sir Laurence Olivier. Netflix, who released this particular documentary film, have amply demonstrated in recent years the ubiquity of such films and documentary series and it’s arguable they, as well as other streaming services, have altered our culture and consciousness not just by their content but by introducing the term “binge watching” into our everyday vernacular. We’ve also seen the transition from a binge watched marathon series (The Staircase for example) become condensed into a more palatable four hourly dramatic televisual series and soon enough such transitions “across the streams” will go through this process and then onto the largest cinematic screen of all on a regular basis.
So I have a real love for extraordinary documentaries as first and foremost the story is there, it’s just down to the producers and directors to arrange the pieces of their envisioned showcasing of said story. There’s also the instantaneous need, arguably, for someone to document the story in actual and factual real time and my love for this medium also seeps through my lens of finding “real life”, other people’s real lives, endlessly fascinating. Before we enter into the madness of John McAfee’s “real life”, take these three examples (of umpteen more I could use) of the very best contemporary cinematic documentary filmmakers of our time.
Alex Gibney astounded me (but seemingly not the rest of the world, least not in a revolutionary sense) with his 2005 expose in Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room and how prescient that seems in light of today’s apocalyptic skyrocketing energy prices. Taxi to the Dark Side followed two years later as he exposed the appalling rendition and torture sanctioned, and administered, by the USA during the Afghanistan war and then a year later he melted my heart with a documentary on my literary hero, Hunter S Thompson. In the fourteen years since Gibney has tackled, amongst many other salient topics, the life of both Julian Assange and Wikileaks, the life of Lance Armstrong within The Armstrong Lie, The Man in the Machine and the life and times of Steve Jobs as well as an incredible expose documentary on the cult (religion, surely? film editor) of Scientology. With seemingly a cinematic documentary release every year, Gibney has also documented the fallout of the “Stuxnet” virus, the prescient (again) Citizen K as well as another particular favourite of mine, 2017’s exposure of collusion and political corruption in Ireland following the horrendous murders catalogued in No Stone Unturned.
Alex Gibney is incredibly prolific and you may well have your own particular favourite documentaries of his and similarly so UK born director Asif Kapadia, who shot to world prominence in 2015 with his Oscar winning documentary Amy, on the tragic life and times of UK born singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse. Kapadia came to my attention five years earlier with his incredible documentary on the beautiful life and tragic death of Brazilian Formula 1 racing driver Ayrton Senna and although not as good (as Senna truly is an incredible piece of documentary art) he then crossed the divide from Brazil to Argentina for his 2019 documentary on the mesmeric life and otherworldly footballing skills (and tragic death — see a theme developing?) of Diego Maradona.
I could have included Michael Moore to this list but we’re not really friends any more so I’ll tease your documentary taste buds with tales of a Grizzly Man, a Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Encounters at the End of the World and the horrific Into The Abyss (among many, many more) from German born filmmaker extraordinaire Werner Herzog and recommend these and all of the above to you. The reason for the inclusion of this rambling introduction is that all four documentarians named above tell their own individual real life stories but always, always, retain the protagonist and their fascinating life, their “real life”, at the very core of the story they tell.
So too director Charlie Russell here, in his sixth feature length cinematic documentary film and probably best known hence far in his career for his collaborations with the literary titan Terry Pratchett. With Running With The Devil, Charlie Russell had both a wealth of archived interviews as well as present day reflections of the original director, cameraman and literary ghost writer for John McAfee and crucially, up to the present day memories from both McAfee’s girlfriend in 2012 and, as the life story progresses, his eventual wife at the time of his murder (death, surely? film editor).
The film is roughly in three cinematic Acts as per a traditional film, and conveniently for me it follows the narrative arc from December 2012 through to June 2021 which mirrors my own following, and minimal knowledge of, the life and times of John McAfee. A little scene setting: I despise the product he created (antivirus software) as well as the reason(s) for needing such a digital defence. After selling the company that bears his name for over $7 Billion to Intel in 2010, twelve years later, and as documented in the film’s closing credits, the company he created is now worth double the value paid in 2010. Two years or so later I became very aware of the growing legend that was John McAfee as well as being a voracious consumer of documentary films I also used to devour podcasts and long form interviews with similarly vigorous consumption. He was a constant ever present on the then fledgling digital platform of podcasting and came across as a uniquely outspoken character and clearly a dangerous threat to the ruling Establishment. A rogue? A renegade? Perhaps, but very definitely the ultimate insider making good before making off with the filthy lucre and then turning against the established order he’d once coalesced with to make his vast fortune. Numerous podcast interviews later, a run as a Presidential candidate in 2016 and then this hyper excited, loquacious and fiercely determined character began to truly emerge who was seemingly always on the run and in a different location for each subsequent interview. I was intrigued, entertained and faintly bemused by this figure who seemed to have life by its tail and was enjoying it to the absolute limit.
I thought or believed I knew as much about John McAfee as I possibly could.
How wrong could I be!
The documentary film is separated into those three loose cinematic “Acts” as we first encounter a young looking and slim 60+ year old John McAfee in December 2012 along with the two genuinely overlooked stars of the documentary, filmmaker Rocco Castoro and his cameraman Robert King. Both filmmaker and cameraman are genuinely and excitedly terrified at the prospect of covering the news story for the ages: McAfee’s neighbour on the Caribbean island of Belize has been found shot dead and McAfee is seemingly about to go on the run from a Government and law enforcement he’d previously handsomely paid off to ensure a peaceful life on the island. Escaping by boat to Guatemala, John McAfee is immediately and constantly reinforcing his image to camera. He says he’s a “counterpoint to Bill Gates and Steve Jobs” as well as stating “people say I remind them of The Joker”.
Act 2 picks up five years later as he vies to become a USA Presidential nominee and, largely through audio recordings to his ghost writer, details the continual shenanigans running through his life. Later in this middle segment and another four years later, cameraman Robert King returns to film and document his life, but a life and existence going off the rails amid heavy alcohol and drug use, a seeming on edge psychosis and surrounded by a lot of guns. Miami to the Bahamas is now the seafaring destination for a man still seemingly on the run and with a devil may care demeanour verging on the demonic. Prepare yourself for the late night scene aboard a boat in the middle of the ocean (quite literally the middle of absolutely nowhere) and a drunk paranoid John McAfee tearing apart his boat looking for infiltrators and spies all whilst incredibly high on “Bath Salts”. Both he and his wife (an ex Prostitute) are liberally waving around loaded guns whilst dangerously high, paranoid and righteously, if totally out of control, incredibly angry. It’s as good as any writer could create trying for a terrifyingly fictional horror scene, as is perfectly demonstrated by a scared out of his mind cameraman.
From January 2019 above we venture first to May of that year before tumbling out of control with John McAfee until his eventual demise on 23rd June 2021. The film’s final act is revelatory to say the very, very least (no spoilers here) as well as jumping back to his original roots in England before he made his fortune and eventually making enemies out of all the wrong people.
My take on John McAfee is that he must have been an “Agent” of some description for the USA Government after working on the Apollo space programme for NASA and then developing the high level software he became initially famous for. He took his money and tried to run, and run and run again. He knew far too much about the fewest of the few and those dark actors had to extinguish his flame. Or he was fake news before the term had even been invented, creating his own image and legacy as well as archly manipulating all around him as he toyed with their strings. John McAfee understood the ultimate secret: we only get an average of 70 turns around the sun and he was going to enjoy himself, as well as entertain himself, until the sun finally set forever.
His legend continues as you’ll see by the end of the documentary film as well as the plethora of soundbites, quotes, an incredibly famous tweet before an infamous event that seems far too pertinent (if you know it, you’ll know) as well as his ex girlfriend Sam claiming that not only does his legend live on, but so does John himself.
But the stars of the show are the original documentary filmmaker Rocco Castoro (who seems utterly broken by his whole experience with McAfee) and his cameraman Robert King who originally was having an absolute blast and loving the life of following around the famed wild man before he too appeared visibly broken and upset at the death of a man he followed around for so long.
For a man known for his disguises, paranoia, last minute flits and voyages in the dead of night to far away islands, John McAfee was very fond, as well as very gentlemanly mannered, in introducing himself by name at every possible opportunity. Considering the circus of a life that surrounded him in just his last decade alive on earth, as well as a vast wealth waiting in the wings and THE wildest comeback story of them all, it’s not going to happen, but it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility of an aged, haggard and man of ailing health to suddenly pop up and say
“Hello. I’m John McAfee”.
I seriously doubt it will happen, but with John McAfee, you never know.
Thanks for reading. For more film reviews whereby I talk around the film in question rather than spoiling it, please either see my archives or the three most recently published articles linked below:
“Bullet Train” (2022)
Snakes on a train!medium.com
“Thirteen Lives” (2022)
The story that gripped the world in 2018.medium.com
“Brian and Charles” (2022)
Ex Machina in the Welsh Hillsmedium.com