Men of War

In just five short years, Donald Trump has gone from "I'm going to free Venezuela" to "I must end legal protections for the 600,000 Venezuelans we allowed into the country".

The film details the Trump 2020 administration's fallback position - outright denial of participating in a planned coup of Venezuela - and provides the drama of Men of War. At center stage of the documentary is Jordan Goudreau. An ex-Green Beret who trained in Special Forces, he fought for American interests in Afghanistan and other high-conflict zones.

After he was released from the service, Goudreau became a man without a mission. He tells us this is deadly for soldiers who thrive in battle, who live for the action and adrenaline rush. In May 2020, Goudreau was contacted by retired General Cliver Cordones of Venezuela. Above all else, General Cordones wanted to free Venezuela from under President Nicholas Maduro's boot. Goudreau and Cordones began to "catalyze" a regime change.

Based on conversations and meetings he attended, the Green Beret believed the plan was also fully blessed by the 2020 Trump administration. Goudreau has copies of a multi-million-dollar contract signed by various parties who held a vested interest in the success of the coup. The film remains neutral, taking no sides in the unspooling and political disavowals that follow the failed invasion attempt by Goudreau. We watch multiple, highly detailed plans unravel in real time on many fronts.

For months, Goudreau remains excited about the mission. He's contacted by multiple high-ranking Trump administration officials including VP Pence and Keith Schiller, one of Trump's closest advisors and his former bodyguard. Travis Lucas, Schiller's attorney, was also involved. We're shown text messages proving Goudreau's version of the events. Additionally, Trump and his administration publicly supported Juan Guaido to become the new President. Guaido was the self-declared opposition leader to Maduro. In rallies, multiple recordings reveal Trump verbally vowing to help Venezuelans relieve themselves of Maduro. Thirty-eight other nations supported Guaido taking the reins of power away from Maduro. "Operation Gideon" was put into play.

Before any coup was ever in existence, Goudreau and some ex-military buddies established a company called Silvercorp USA. Silvercorp had been contracted by various entities around the globe whenever there were political situations which called for their specific 'expertise'. Silvercorp was set to receive funding from the US to finance the Venezuelan coup. We're talking millions of dollars. It's a little fuzzy at which point Directors Billy Corben and Jen Gatien became embedded with Goudreau. The pair accompany him to a location outside Venezuela, where disaffected Venezuelan ex-pats train for the overthrow. They listen-in while Goudreau makes and receives messages from the White House. Everything feels like it's ready to go. Venezuelans will be free.

And then, Goudreau's team suffers the very public, politically disastrous failed coup. Men of War exposes the viper's nest of backstabbing and double dealing that typified the 2020 administration. Weeks stretch into months, and Goudreau arrives at the realization that Washington has turned away from him. Funding has disappeared. His team, and General Cordones, are now criminalized and on the run. American soldiers are imprisoned, their plight ignored by the Administration. Venezuelan journalist Sebastiana Barraez is forced to flee for her life just for writing about the events. Maduro convinced the public that she had a hand in the failed coup.

The fallout of the failure is immense. As is always the case, truth is hijacked by those who wield the most power. Opposition parties remain exiled or imprisoned. Today, Maduro threatens US forces with military hostilities. And Goudreau, well, he is somehow convinced that Trump will grant him a pardon. Though Men Of War gives us some possible explanations, I leave viewers to draw their own conclusions as to why, in 2020, Trump and his cohorts involved the US in a foreign coup and why they then flipped the switch, completely shutting down the possibility of providing a desperate nation with a better, democratic future.

In 2020, a rag tag group of Venezuelan dissidents and American private military contractors landed at Macuto Bay, Venezuela, with the intention of overthrowing the authoritarian government of (legally designated U. S. foreign adversary) Nicholas Maduro. Days before the landing, the plot was revealed on Venezuelan television and supposedly paid for by the leader of the Venezuelan government-in-exile, Juan Guaido. The shoddy plan and audacity of it all made it one of 2020's most interesting news stories, in a year dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

From this story comes Men of War, a documentary following the events leading up to "Operation Gideon" and its aftermath, primarily through the lens of the Canadian born, American special ops dude-turned-mercenary, Jordan Goudreau. To say Goudreau is a character ripped straight out of Hollywood would be an understatement. He's such an incredibly fascinating person that I sort of wish the directors followed him more.

Men of War follows an inherently interesting and wild story that DEFINITELY deserves the full documentary treatment. There are so many great twists and turns, interesting characters, geopolitical intrigue, and conspiracy, it honestly writes itself. That being said, I think this movie is a testament to the reality that execution matters. You can have compelling people or events, but if a documentary doesn't share the information in a compelling and efficient way, it suffers.

To that end, I am sorry to say that Men of War is lacking in the presentation front. The directors definitely had intention in the way the film was cut and put together; a fast paced, spy thriller style intended to convey how Jordan sees the world (a "post-modern soldier," as director Billy Corben put it). However, I couldn't help but feel the doc needed to slow down a bit, let us get our bearing before info dumping on us for a good 45 minutes or so.

Eventually, as the pieces are set and we settle into more interviews, the movie slows down, but I can't help but feel there was a bit of artistry lacking here at times. Sometimes we'd cut to images or clips that almost felt as if they were "over explaining" things. I'd be genuinely curious to see how many distinct clips were used in it, because at a certain point, the film's pacing was just exhausting to be honest.

I also felt like key details that SHOULD'VE been focused on were not. Like, for example, the actual nuts and bolts of the plan these men were attempting to execute. It'd be nice to get a sense of what they were trying to do. I think it'd also be nice to understand the political context a bit more; why Venezuela was in the state it was and why the United States would have an interest in overthrowing Maduro. I follow geopolitics pretty closely, but I can imagine for the uninitiated, it would be hard to understand.

Overall, I enjoyed Men of War but I do hope there's a slightly more restrained and focused version of this movie out there. This story deserves to be told and I think with some tweaks, this thing could be really special.