Director Alejandro Hartmann’s new Netflix documentary, The Menendez Brothers, debuted just a few weeks after the release of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.
Both provide very different perspectives on the terrible 1993 murder of Jose and Mary Menendez in Beverley Hills, which was eventually confessed to by their two sons, Lyle and Erik Menendez.
It was initially assumed that the brothers had gone a 12-gauge shotgun to their parents to collect their $15 million inheritance. Still, a more convoluted picture emerged at their trial three and a half years later.
Lyle and Erik claimed they had been mentally, physically, and sexually abused by their father since the age of six, and that they had shot 15 shells into him and their mother only after Lyle threatened Jose with revealing their secret, and that they then thought their own lives were in danger. They believe this is why Lyle and Erik murdered their parents.
1. Why is The Menendez Brothers Documentary Perfect To Watch After Monsters?
The Menendez Brothers are a timely reminder that there are two sides to this tragic story. The series has landed on the idea that Kyle and Erik were cold, callous, financially motivated murderers. In contrast, the documentary indicates a more nuanced conclusion that they were motivated by years of abuse and family instability.
Ultimately, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story supports the first-degree murder conviction that sentenced Erik and Lyle Menendez to life in prison without parole, whereas The Menendez Brothers contends that a lesser manslaughter charge should have been filed.
The documentary features first-hand interviews with both brothers, but also with their Los Angeles prosecutor Leslie Abramson, who still insists “that whole defense was fabricated”.
She claims that the footage of the original trial in which both brothers testified to their father’s sexual abuse appears to contradict her, with Kyle and Erik’s emotional appearances seeming heartfelt and real – whereas they are portrayed in the series as far more calculating and manipulative, particularly in scenes where, post-murder, they go on a spending spree picking up Porsche’s and Rolex’s.
2. How The Menendez Brothers Differ From Netflix’s Monsters?
The distinction between the documentary and the series is stark: Jose is portrayed as oppressive and abusive in Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, but the sexual assault is simply emotional, whereas it is explicit and startling in The Menendez Brothers.
Similarly, the series omits their cousin Diane’s evidence, which states Lyle told her about the abuse when she was eight years old and that she approached Kitty with it but was disregarded.
The series contains very suggestive homoerotic, incestuous moments involving the two boys, whereas The Menendez Brothers only depicts Erik’s on-screen admission that Lyle assaulted him once.
The two productions approach OJ Simpson’s influence on the verdicts very differently. In their 1993 mistrial, in which the jury was unable to reach a verdict, it was believed that the boys’ version of events was effective.
However, their second trial, which began a week after OJ’s acquittal, saw Judge Stanley Weisberg’s refuse to hear much of the defense’s salient abuse testimony, resulting in a speedy and unanimous guilty verdict.
The series portrayed this as part of then-District Attorney Gil Garcetti’s re-election campaign, whereas the documentary focused on a vengeful Judge backed by a broken legal system.
3. What The Menendez Brothers Have Said About Netflix’s Monsters?
The Menendez Brothers implicitly accept Erik and Lyle’s version of events. Still, they reject the opportunity to include last year’s charges by Ray Rosello of the boy band Menudo, who claimed Jose drugged and raped him while he was the chairman of RCA.
That revelation has spurred the current LA District Attorney to reopen the case and analyze the new information, as Lyle and Erik have requested. Erik, in particular, was outraged because Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story called into question the sexual assault charges.
Lyle, however, claims that in prison, he has become a sexual abuse counselor for other offenders, providing credence to his and his brother’s stated case. A third trial appears unavoidable, and both The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story and The Menendez Brothers will have helped to bring it about.
Public opinion on the subject appears to have evolved recently, with a loud and persistent “Free The Menendi” campaign in full swing on the social media platform TikTok, which has been persuaded that the documentary’s perspective on the killings is correct.
4. About The Menendez Brothers (film)
The Menendez Brothers is a 2024 American true crime documentary film directed by Alejandro Hartmann for the streaming company Netflix, in which brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez, who were convicted of the 1989 murders of their parents, are interviewed about the case.
The documentary film tells the story of Lyle and Erik Menendez, who were convicted in 1996 for the murders of their parents on August 20, 1989. In the documentary, for the first time in about thirty years, the brothers themselves talk about what exactly happened and why they did it.
The brothers do this through audio interviews from prison, where they are still incarcerated. In addition to the brothers, others involved in the case speak in the film, including family, lawyers, jurors, reporting journalists, and the lead prosecutor Pamela Bozanich.
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