Author Spotlight
Sophia Brockmeier
It’s the summer of 1989. Beverly Hills, California is the utopian paradise for all of the famed millionaires residing in their lavish mansions. The wealthy, secure community has nothing to fear.
Until Jose and Kitty Menendez were murdered on Aug. 20, 1989 in their white, terra cotta roofed, 17-million-dollar home.
Erik and Lyle Menendez killed their parents out of self-defense and terror — a tragedy that the affluent neighborhood couldn’t have imagined. “The Menendez Brothers” Netflix documentary outlines this murder in a thrilling manner that brings together authentic clips, addresses Jose’s sexual abuse towards his sons and uses well-crafted storytelling to highlight the brothers.
The one-hour and 56-minute film was released on Oct. 7 and, I have to admit, I was shocked by how the murder was told. I expected a gory and gruesome look into exactly how the brothers committed the murder and, of course, for the film to be coupled with ghastly photos. But, the documentary rather focused on motives instead, using real interviews with the brothers from their jail cells.
The documentary is told through the lens of why the Menendez brothers murdered their parents. Instead of describing the play-by-play actions of Erik and Lyle’s shotgun murder, it focuses on revealing the prestigious families’ twisted past. After about 15 minutes, I found myself sympathizing with the brothers instead of blaming them for their horrible crime.
The documentary is told through a series of clips from the popular TV show in the late 1900s called “Court TV.” “Court TV” set up cameras in the actual courtroom where the Menendez trial occurred — receiving raw footage of confessions, interrogations and testimonies from the brothers.
I appreciated the integration in these scenes as it made me feel like I was in the courtroom with the brothers, instead of just laying in my bed 41 years later. After all, almost no one is looking up “Court TV” on YouTube and spending an afternoon combing through the archives.
The integration of these real-life clips avoided re-enactments, my least favorite part about murder documentaries. When I watched “The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard” last summer I couldn’t help but gag at all the staging of the actors.
No one wants to watch two fake Menendez brothers murder fake parents in a fake house with fake weapons. It’s a bore. Thank goodness “The Menendez Brothers” didn’t fall for this trap.
Additionally, the footage of the brothers actually in a courtroom shied away from recycling the same three photos over and over again in the film. Many directors of murder shows will seemingly fall in love with a few photos and continuously shove them upon the viewer. No person really wants to see the same blurry, pixelated photo more than once.
Woven throughout the documentary were serious topics of sexual assault and abuse — making the documentary a deeper watch. One of the major motives for Erik and Lyle’s killing was the constant abuse they endured from their father for around ten years.
“The Menendez Brothers” counters the social stigma around the sexual abuse of males and holds society, including the jurors, accountable for ignoring Erik and Lyle’s testimonies. At the end of the documentary, Erik remarks that “nobody wanted to believe [him]. It was a culture of silence.”
I thought the exposé of information about the Menendez family’s twisted past brought a certain seriousness to the documentary that similar shows can’t achieve. I appreciated the raw look into the brother’s motives and the breakdown of what led up to the murders.
However, I did not enjoy the ending scenes of the documentary. To finish off the pristine storytelling and exposé “The Menendez Brothers” decided to end with TikToks. Yes, they literally showed the viewers recent TikToks of Menendez fans.
I can understand that the directors were attempting to provide a reasoning or time peg as to why the documentary was being released in October, after the case went viral on TikTok, but it only degraded the quality of the production.
After hanging onto every word for almost two hours the last thing I wanted to do was hear what some teenagers thought about the case. I think that the show could have been neatly wrapped up by simply ending with recent photos of the brothers in place of the TikToks.
“The Menendez Brothers” sits you in a chair of a courtroom with convicted murderers while exposing dark secrets of famous families. It’s an intriguing watch that uses authentic clips and brings light to sexual assault — perfect for murder documentary lovers.
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