One of the buzzier documentaries to come out of the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, Jen Gatien and Billy Corben’s “Men of War” is also one that sticks with you — even as confusing and contradictory and thoroughly knotted the story it tells is. Now the trailer for “Men of War” is here.
It tells the mysterious saga of Jordan Goudreau, a forty-something Green Beret turned mercenary who accepted $200 million from Venezuelan dissidents to put together a team and attempt the overthrow of Nicolas Maduro’s dictatorial government — possibly with tacit support from the first Trump administration.
If this incident, codenamed Operation Gideon, didn’t make a ton of headlines, it was because it occurred in May 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when attention was very much elsewhere. But those aware of it nicknamed it the Bay of Piglets for the small-scale nonsense of it. Was it ever meant to succeed? Did a skilled operative like Goudreau really think it would? Two of his fellow ex-U.S. Army operatives were captured held for years in Venezuela when the mission inevitably failed.
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Gatien and Corben tell a gripping story and feature some startling personalities: There’s a Venezuelan dissident in a Miami penthouse who’s obsessed with ninjas who’s particularly memorable — Miami is described as today’s version of “Casablanca,” a place where exiles from all over Latin America gather to plot their comeback, making whatever shady deals are necessary to make their unhinged plots happen, and it definitely comes across that way.
You can see why Neon came aboard as distributor: This is a doc meant to inspire obsession, and maybe some awards interest too. Goudreau, in particular, as a fascinating protagonist, from the moments he talks about evading a SWAT team in L.A. in the aftermath of Operation Gideon’s failure (the Trump admin, trying to establish its deniability of knowledge of this plot, swiftly moved to arrest him), hopping on a motorcycle and heading to the Mexican border, where he lived in self-exile for years.
He’s since returned and awaits trial in Tampa. There may not be a ton of filmmaker distance or objectivity here, though: the AP reports, co-director Gatien put up her $2 million Manhattan loft as bond to secure his release before the trial can begin.
“Men of War” will be available on demand from Neon on Tuesday, September 9. Watch the trailer below.
