The fog of war, men searching for meaning in senseless situations, and the fraught interplay of competing drafts of history are themes that have popped up quite a bit in documentaries and narrative features premiering at the fall festivals this year. None of these have been built on quite as mercurial and ever-shifting a foundation as Jen Gatien and Billy Corben‘s documentary “Men of War,” a nothing-is-what-it-seems head trip about a former Green Beret who tried and failed to overthrow the Nicolás Maduro regime in Venezuela.
It’s such a complicated film, it’s easy for a viewer to get lost. But hey, so did its subjects.
Jordan Goudreau knew he wanted to be in the U.S. Army since he was a kid obsessed with playing “war” and dressing in combat fatigues. The fact that he was Canadian did not dissuade him. He knew he would likely not get to see combat in the Canadian Army, so he trained to be a Green Beret in the U.S. Throughout “Men of War,” he talks with reverence about his time in warzones and still says that he wants to fight for, and even die for, anyone who is oppressed. That’s a little harder because the U.S. Army recommended he not be retained after his years of service due to signs of unresolved PTSD. Throughout the film, the fortysomething Goudreau speaks with such an intense, unblinking resolve, it’s like he lives “in the moment” perpetually. And though that can have its value, particularly in a combat situation, it’s clearly resulted in an inability to see the bigger picture at times.
As such, around 2019, upon entering into “contract work” — better known as mercenary work — he fell in with various members of the Venezuelan opposition to that nation’s government, ruled with an iron fist and flagrant disregard for democratic norms by Maduro. There was an ex-Hugo Chavez general who opposes Maduro named Cliver Alcala. There was Maduro’s outright rival, thought by many to have legitimately won a recent presidential election, Juan Guaido. And there was a Miami-penthouse-dwelling Venezuelan dissident named J.J. Rendon, who has a major thing for ninjas.
Not to mention, as might be expected, several high-ranking figures of the Trump administration entered Goudreau’s life as well, including Keith Schiller, the head of Oval Office Operations for the then president and his longtime bodyguard for years beforehand.
Gatien and Corben weave all these strands together in an engrossing tale, or rather, several competing narratives. There’s Goudreau, whose stated idealism undeniably was only part of why he got involved with these various figures’ plot to send a platoon of dissidents into Caracas to topple the government — the fact he was offered over $200 million for the mission was certainly a huge part of it. There’s Rendon and all the others interviewed for the film or captured in archival footage by Goudreau himself, who deliberately occupy a place of plausible deniability: If Goudreau’s coup attempt, Operation Gideon, had succeeded when it was launched in early 2020, they’d stand to gain. If it failed, they could deny involvement. (Spoiler alert: Operation Gideon did not succeed.)
The filmmakers even have extensive interviews with Alcala, speaking to him over shaky Facetime, because he’s now in a U.S. prison. At some point it appears that the other Venezuelan opposition forces may have sold the ex-general out to the DEA for earlier crimes, as they feared he might take power himself if Operation Gideon succeeded. And there’s also the brother of one of the American ex-Special Ops soldiers who Goudreau enlisted for the cause, who emphatically alleges that Goudreau led these Americans into certain doom, claiming that he goaded them on until they were in fact captured.
No one is right and everyone is wrong here, and it’s a knot of plotting and backstabbing and misguided intentions and stated aims versus indifferent execution that makes what happened almost impossible to parse. And that’s the point, clearly. What is the truth when literally everyone involved is living their own separate version of the truth? There’s definitely a metaphor for the forever wars mindset in the U.S. for the past 20 years, of a feeling that some causes are worth pursuing even if you’re not sure why. But of course it turns out that some of the opposition forces here that Goudreau apparently believed in so much may have only wanted to enrich themselves: To weaponize people’s hatred of the Maduro regime and profit on that hatred to their own ends. There’s a suggestion that some of them are in fact covertly working for the regime.
Certainly, the Trump administration officials who decried Maduro endlessly to appeal to Venezuelan expat voters in South Florida had no real intention on any follow through. This is a portrait of what happens in the U.S. government when comms strategy replaces actual policy. You end up with something like Operation Gideon, not even a Bay of Pigs-level fiasco. More, as it was called at the time, a Bay of Piglets.
Goudreau is an undeniably compelling lead character for “Men of War.” He’ll issue a stunning quote like this: “I learned that this government is not worth fighting for. I learned that people are worth fighting for. And if there are people who are oppressed, send me. I’ll fucking fight and die, man. I hate to say that, but fucking violence solves problems. Change happens through men with guns. It’s bad, but hey man I guess it gives me good job security at least.” And then he immediately breaks into tears because he’s in D.C. and hears “Taps” playing in the distance.
An unexamined life such as this can lead to a downward spiral. Twenty years of an unexamined national psyche can lead to catastrophe. For our nation, and others.
Grade: B
“Men of War” world premiered at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution.
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