User reviews

Solid documentary. It could have been a little less one sided. I understand from another documentary that there's some incriminating evidence than if it were purely self-defense (such as a recorded telephone conversation between Lyle and a friend).

We can't know for sure what happened behind closed doors in the Menendez family, I'm inclined to believe them.

In any case, what the documentary certainly achieves is that you will find the brothers more sympathetic than the first prosecutor (Pamela Bozanich), even if they were cold blooded killers.

Her behavior and attitude will infuriate you. She comes across as a typical narcissist. But perhaps because of her defensive behavior and certain things she says, you get the impression that somewhere she knows that she might have been wrong.

Her latest comments are ridiculous ("The only reason we're doing this special is because of the TikTok movement to free the Menendi" and "If that's how we're gonna try cases now, why don't we just, like, have a poll? You present the faces, everyone gets to vote on TikTok, and then we decide who gets to go home"). What is wrong with her to make such statements??

Finally, she threatens Tik Tok people who have a different opinion than herself by saying that she is heavily armed. Sounds like an aggressive toddler.

I just had to get this off my chest. Thank you.

Judge Stanley Weisberg is corrupt and should be in prison. After having watched the actual trial he was biased from the very start of the first trial. He showed great preference to the prosecution, he would object to nearly every one of the defence's questions and block them and let the prosecution ask ridiculous questions and make atrocious statements. Not to mention he removed all of the abuse testimonies and evidence from the second trial. And there was a lot of evidence of abuse. As for the documentary itself, it was good however after having watched the actual trial it missed out so much of the abuse that these brothers especially Erik endured at both the hands of their parents. There was so much evidence, in the form of photos, medical reports and not to mention the various testimonies from doctors, coaches and family members. I felt that the documentary missed this out. It speaks volumes that not one person other than his paid secretary was a character witness for the father. They were abused in many ways by both parents and I hope that they are free soon. They have served enought time, they deserve a chance at a life.

I waited to watch this documentary instead of the Monsters series that came before it as I'm generally more fascinated to hear from the actual people involved in the case, rather than actors pretending they were there. This documentary is certainly intended to be more sympathetic to the brothers, however I still like the fact it uses real footage of the trial, the media reporting at the time, that you get to hear from actual jurors and the brothers themselves. You can go back and forth about what the documentary left out; those who don't believe the brothers will criticize it that it's too sympathetic to them, equally those who do believe them can point out to more testimony and evidence of their abuse that the documentary didn't show.

Regardless which side of the fence you come down on, I find it very difficult one can argue that their second trial allowed them a fair opportunity to put forward a defense. To not allow numerous testimony from family members, doctors, photos, letters etc that could potentially show how they were abused for years which is central to the defense's explanation of what influenced their actions that night feels incredibly prejudicial. Whether the jury then accepts this version of events is a separate matter, but surely the point of the judicial process is that they have the opportunity to hear the evidence for it. Certainly I think there was political pressure to not allow another acquittal of a high profile defendant for murder with OJ Simpson being acquitted just a week prior to much of the public's disgust. These two factors I think greatly taint their second trial and the inevitable verdict from it that they've now served 34 years for.

The prosecutor Pamela comes off as very unlikable towards the end as well. It's fine if she doesn't believe them, and while I agree TikTok in general is a stain on society, to facetiously joke you'd use a firearm in defense against "TikTok people" as you in the same breath rubbish the Menendez's defence of using a firearm against their alleged abuser is a staggering lack of self-awareness. She also dismisses the social media 'campaigns' for them to be released, which, youthful exuberance and folly aside I'm sure hold little legal grounds, but she does so by acting incredulous that that would make a mockery of the justice process. "Why don't we hold TikTok trials or a poll" she says with indignation, but apparently she's fine with a judge not admitting the majority of a defense's evidence and unfairly influencing the outcome of a trial.

I'm not sure how much legal basis there is for them to have another trial since they already had an appeal denied. I'm sure there are legal minds already exploring options with this case in the spotlight again, so the saga might yet continue in the coming years. Society today is certainly more acknowledging of sexual abuse victims, and how grooming and power dynamics affects how they react to their abuse. If you accept they were abused, and there's certainly much testimony and evidence to support it, then 34 years in jail from a tainted second trial in the 90s when abuse against boys/men was largely ignored feels like an injustice.

Having watched the other Netflix show on the Menendez Brother in Monsters, I walked away still feeling like I wasn't sure what really happened. We can all have an opinion but I hope not everyone watches that show and thinks they can without a doubt know what happened because they filled in so many wholes with speculation it's marred the true facts.

This documentary was very good in hearing from the brothers as well as other important figures during the trials. It also highlights without a doubt that the second trial was a farce and that the brothers deserve in the very least an appeal. I believe they were both sexually abused and although this is no means a reason to murder your parents, I feel if they had of had a fair second trial, they would have received a manslaughter conviction. This means, and I agree, they have paid their dues to society and should be released. This is my opinion but the law must make a decision on their outcome, which is in discussion now. I hope this time they hear all the testimonial evidence from the relatives and finally give these boys a fair hearing.

I came to this Netflix documentary about the Menendez brothers case, probably like a lot of other people, after viewing the same channel's recently broadcast controversial 9-part drama, released under the "Monsters" title. I personally couldn't remember anything about the case before I watched the series, however, what I think is pretty inarguable is that it was slanted in favour of the prosecution case, which eventually prevailed at a retrial, finding the brothers guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.

This two-hour film however was very different. Using extensive recent audio-interviews with them, I believe there's equally little doubt that the film-makers believe that the two were indeed provoked by the alleged incestuous sexually abusive behaviour of their father, to shockingly shoot both him and his wife, their mother, while they watched TV in their palatial family home.

With access to many of the original participants in the case, including jurors from both trials, also witnesses and representatives for both the defence and the prosecution, including the original female prosecutor, this was highly provocative in the claims it seemed to make. The point is made that in the intervening thirty years, with society's acceptance of parental sexual abuse in particular by fathers on their own children, including their sons, coupled with the emergence of the "#MeToo" movement, that the siblings were incorrectly charged and subsequently sentenced to jail. The claim here is that they should have received the lesser sentence of manslaughter, which would have resulted in much shorter custodial sentences them both, meaning of course they would have long since been freed by now.

The point is also made that the pair likely caught the backlash of the DA Office's perception that the near-contemporary acquittal of OJ Simpson and before that also of the four policemen who beat up Rodney King, meant that they were determined to this time obtain a high-profile conviction with the notorious brothers fitting the bill. One other interesting fact is that on the original hung-jury, the 50/50 split amongst them was on a gender basis, with the six males voting guilty and the six females accepting the self-defence claim.

I thought from the TV series that I knew how I'd have voted if I'd been on either jury but this alternative counter-argument, did make me revisit my thoughts on the case.

That said, I do believe that being kept in jail for over 30 years is certainly long enough, even for the terrible crime they committed and tried to cover up and that I wouldn't argue if their soon-upcoming appeal is upheld and they are freed, as I believe is now probable.

Time has told and time will tell...

They just came up so short. I mean so much material. Netflix true crime industry behind them, and they didn't get good interview subjects. The story telling just re-ordered actual events to try and put sympathy on the kids.

The interview sets were great. Lighting, framing, layouts, just always a good job from Netflix.

The directing was...so heavily biased. Netflix falls into this trap so often. And it must be Netflix because Docs like "Twin Flame" were so obviously pointing in one direction and they bring in a person with an agenda and no relevance to try and explain things away. People buy that?

"Making a Murderer" what I loved was it showed True Crime deep dives can be popular...what it did for documentary storytelling may not be worth it. It just comes from an uncurious place, and everyone is following suit. They literally have their mind made up and show THAT story rather than explore things from all angles. It's like they think the audience isn't smart and should be told what to think (hey, kind of like all journalism today.) Maybe this is why so many (so, so many) of these docs interview journalists...you're doing the documentary, you're uncovering things, the journalists have a bias to support their work. The first series that's provocative in a way that asks people use critical thinking is going to be a smash hit.

Summary: They can put out 2 docs and a limited series about this case, but you're not getting around the facts. These boys were not abused, there is literally zero evidence to support it. The first time "abuse" comes up is when Erik's lawyer comes into the picture and (surprise surprise) she's used this same defense on her last three clients. So a good doc would explore that. Why is it Leslie's Abramson just so happens to have 4 consecutive clients...two with virtually the exact same description of abuse, and oh yeah...they all mirror the abuse detailed in a book? Lucky her?

Whether it's Steven Avery, these kids, or OJ Simpson...I just don't get how someone can overlook the facts and actual evidence and with a straight face think they're innocent or in the Menendez case, believe the outright lies. It's like living in crazyland. I'd give credit to the documentarian for swaying them, but in the case of this doc, I just don't see how something this lackluster (in spite soooooo much to work with) could convince anyone.

It is bewildering that complex PTSD is still not recognised as a disorder in the DSM-V in 2024, let alone be taken into consideration in the Menendez trials when the concept was in its infancy. This documentary presents a comprehensive overview of the salient details of the Menendez brothers' case from the origins of the killings to the current TikTok movement to emancipate the brothers after 34 years of incarceration and counting, including advances in public awareness of sexual abuse of boys committed overwhelmingly by the men to whom the powerless boys were entrusted.

Supported by the testimonies of family members and forensic criminal experts in the first trial, it was established that both Lyle and Erik endured years of grooming and violence (physical, emotional and sexual) by their father, while the mother, herself lacking a moral compass, abetted the father through her passivity and silence. She was more distraught over his affairs with other women than his grotesque tampering with her own flesh-and-blood. Also fact was that the prosecution could not obtain character witnesses for either parent because they were such deplorable human beings.

In the 1990s, trial by media was the new sensation, Judge Weisberg had presided over the acquittal of four police officers of a hate crime (arising in the 1992 LA riots), the six male jurors in the first trial insisted on murder (to exculpate the father and themselves) while the women pressed for manslaughter, and OJ Simpson got off scot-free for murder due to his celebrity status. So Weisberg prevented crucial information from being fairly presented in the second trial to engineer a much-needed win for the DA's office, leading to a 12-0 ruling for first-degree murder within just a week.

As an outsider in Australia, I find the justice system in America bizarre. There is no neutrality when prosecutors like Bozanich and judges like Weisberg have a huge incentive to pursue certain convictions in order to further their public careers. Bozanich is so blind to her own self-righteousness that she doesn't recognise the hypocrisy when she says of the TikTokers, "their beliefs are not facts". She herself remains convinced of the brothers' intent to murder their parents out of greed despite all evidence presented by the defence. "They were just these dumb jock killers", she says of her first impression of them. She claims that she only agreed to participate in this documentary to show up for the slain mother, but it's a feeble disguise for her self-serving motivations. People like her don't care about justice, only themselves.

The movie "The Menendez Brothers" is a documentary that revisits the 1989 murders of Jose and Kitty Menendez, committed by their sons, Lyle and Erik. Director Alejandro Hartmann revisits the murder through interviews with the brothers, as well as relatives, friends, lawyers, and prosecutors. This offers a visually distinct perspective on the case, particularly when revealing the abusive family environment in which the brothers were raised. The father's strict upbringing is accompanied by the mother's disdain and lack of understanding. Given this information, the documentary attempts to justify the murder of their parents in some way. If the act wasn't premeditated, why did they use a friend's identity to purchase the weapon they used?

Doesn't possessing a gun imply an intention to kill? What other purpose does a gun serve aside from that?

Reactions to this documentary are mixed, but it's clear that killing their parents to protect themself is neither a sensible nor rational decision. They could have sought support from family members who were aware of the abusive parents.

Protection? That's what the police are for!

Finally, a complete revelation of the facts. When children (or anyone) are subjected to systematic psychological and sexual abuse, they are emotionally and mentally dysregulated.

People asking, "why don't they leave, why don't they tell the police?"...do not understand how psychological control works. Their family was a cult of 4. These brothers were completely irrational, illogical...mentally unwell.

Of course they were! Anyone who had lived their torturous childhood would be the same.

This documentary includes corroborating stories to support the disgusting abusive nature of their father, and the lack of care from their mother.

Sometimes with this type of abuse there is only one way out. If you have not experienced it personally, you wouldn't understand.

The documentary does a good job at explaining what happened at the time.

It shows injustices created by the system and the judge, and how idiotic many people can be.

But what seems little explored is this: The menendez brothers bought a shotgun and ammo with a credit card that they stole from one of their friends. Which means the murder was very much planned ahead. They could've bought a recording device to prove their parent abused them, if that was true. They could've then used that evidence to either get them arrested, or gotten some protection from them through child services. Instead, they killed them and started spending ludicrous amounts of money.

Netflix allowing the brothers to do an in-depth interview about the events of not only that night but their lives prior to that was much needed. It's so refreshing to hear their voices after so many years. After watching this I am convinced that the abuse happened. Mainly because of how they killed their mother. They slaughtered her like a wild animal according to the prosecutor. You wouldn't kill your mother the way they did with so many bullets if you didn't hate her to your core. I began to think of how many men will actually do you serious bodily harm if you talk about their mothers. No matter how bad of a mother she is most men would go so far as attempted murder to protect their mother. So the fact that as she tried to flee they layered her with bullets mean that she was intensely hated. And you can only hate your mother that intensely if she failed to protect you from something or abused you. In this case it was both.

If you murder your mother for money you'd do so in a less rageful way such as poisoning. The menendez brothers were telling the truth and now that they have a hearing coming up i would love to see a follow up documentary on their lives after release. I gave this documentary 9 stars because I wish that Leslie Abramson, jill Lansing and Dr. Oziel would have at least spoken on camera.

Clearly this show is Netflix's attempt to make viewers like the Menendez brothers. It was painfully biased and they ignored SO much evidence. The prosecutor was the only interviewed person who still had some common sense.

These two are murderers, and it doesn't matter how Netflix is trying to make them victims. They killed their parents in cold blood and recorded phone conversations show that they manipulated the jurors by telling lies on the stand and acting vulnerable by putting on an act of crying. All this fabricated strategy (that most likely was the attorneys' idea) was conveniently left out of this show, among many other things that would make people think and really see what was going on there.

If you want to know more about the case then I recommend watching season 2 of the series "Monsters" as they REALLY did a great job in being unbiased and just showing pure evidence and multiple perspectives, so that people can decide themselves what to believe. Whereas this "documentary's" only purpose is to twist some things and hide others that are terribly incriminating, and the creators want to tell you what to think. Horrible movie and a waste of time.

After watching this documentary I think they should re-open the case. But first of all it must be proven that these men were really abused. Of course, being sexually abused is something horrible and should be taken into account when someone kills out of self-defence. But you can't just believe everybody who claims it. Certainly not everybody who murdered someone.

But in the last few seconds of this documentary it's clear that Netflix has already made up their mind. This is a pity. It shows the leftist agenda that Netflix has, like it also shows in many other series and documentaries on the streaming service.

This is an extremely low-end production. There are hundreds of sources for this info, so why watch such tripe?

It includes a BUNCH of pointless "talking heads." People with ZERO connection to the incidents.

This is LAZY, in terms of a documentary.

It's actually quite sad, that N-flix is even showing this.

This is truly bottom-of-the-barrel "journalism."

This case has already been examined so extensively. WHY is some "Hard Copy" version even required, at this point?

A certain streamer is getting quite desperate for content, apparently.

Don't watch. Skip this. Watch anything else on the subject. You are not cattle.

I've known about this case for years, but recently watched the Monsters TV series based on the case, which is basically a lightly fictionalized docuseries.

This instead is a documentary, with footage of the real trial, and with the brothers' narration. I recommend watching this documentary after watching the Monsters TV series, to get a more complete picture of the dynamics.

In this documentary, they want you to be more inclined to believe the siblings' abuse, and they succeed at doing it. I can't say whether I believe in the abuse or not, there is evidence that it happened, and at the same time there is evidence that they lied and pretended about many things, one thing does not exclude the other. But one thing is certain, both in this documentary and in the Monsters series, the second trial was not done correctly, it was not carried out guaranteeing a fair and impartial trial, it was carried out starting a priori that the only possible output would be the life imprisonment.

The Menendez brothers killed two people, and for this they deserve to serve a long sentence, but they do not deserve to be deprived of the right to a fair trial.

If their trial had taken place today, they would probably have already finished serving their sentence.

Very well put together documentary, and If these men are not released from prison after everything the world has learned about this case, and male abuse victims, it would show that society still doesn't truly care.

Also, Pamela Bozanich has not moved on from this case that she lost in 1993... 30 years letting the Menendez brothers live rent free in her head... Love the part where she warns us she has guns in her home... O, the irony, to shoot someone you believe is going to harm you. Sums up the prosecution in a nutshell.

Anyway 10/10 documentary. Really worth the watch.

Free the Menendez brothers!

Want to hear directly from the brothers 30 years later? Want to hear the FACTS of what went down and why? Want to know what evidence was given? Want to know how the parents REALLY acted towards their kids? Then watch this.

I enjoyed hearing directly from the brothers in this documentary, and the openness and honesty that they shared, in an attempt to destroy any false narratives and inaccuracies that have been spread by other media (*cough* Ryan Murphy).

Very educational for anyone that has been interested in learning more about the Menendez Case, as well as for anyone that still denies that they were s*xually assaulted by their abusive and disgusting "parents."

FREE THE MENENDEZ BROTHERS!

I'd never heard of the Menendez case, or at least completely forgotten about it. So I came to this unbiased and open-minded. Since their guilt is established early-on, the focus is on mitigation. Once lawyered-up, and in court (more than 3 hears after the murders), the brothers come up with a child abuse story. Surprisingly, there is no attempt to corroborate their testimony by physical examination, checks of father's computer etc. So it's all on their word. To me it seemed suspiciously contrived, and their behaviour giving evidence hammy. Of the 'experts', only the prosecutor came across with much credibility.

Finally, a complete account of what happened. So troubling, when people who have zero understanding of psychological and sexual abuse, feel justified in judging these brothers. Of course their behavior was irrational, illogical, and sometimes crazy.

When children are terrorized and raped from a young age, they become messed up. They cannot think straight.

This doc includes plenty of corroboration of their stories by relatives. Also interesting, next to no positive character witnesses for the prosecution. Everyone close to the family knew what was going on, and knew that Kitty and Jose were bad people.

Like many people I'm sure, I came to this off the back off the recent Netflix drama 'Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story' and I wanted to know more on the factual side behind the case. While the latter was well made and entertaining (if that's the right word, when the details are considered), I wish I'd just gone straight to this as there's none of the keep you guessing ambiguity of the drama which given what's at stake and having now seen both, seems quite unfair to the brothers. There's nothing fancy here, it's a meat and potatoes crime documentary of the like we've all seen many times before. But it gets the facts across and conveys the injustice of the 2nd court case well.

This is a very good documentary. You can't any more access than the brothers' own words 30 some years after the fact. It's well paced, doesn't seem to long or too brief. Most of the interviewees are well spoken, and relevant to the case.

I remember watching the trial on TV when it happened. I believed them then, and I still do. The testimony of the fathers own relatives was telling. And they couldn't find a single witness to say something nice about the parents? Obviously, they deserved to be punished, it was a brutal scene with a lot of overkill, and so it's as to what degree. I believe they've been in there long enough, and I'm confident they would've received manslaughter if the trial were held today. And I absolutely do not think they'd be a threat to society, not at all.

The prosecutor came off as arrogant, but I've seen many times that's par for the course. She was gifted the first degree sentences by a biased, seemingly annoyed judge who refused testimony on their behalf. That was unfortunate. Jurors were left with no choice.

Oh those poor, poor "boys." They shotgunned their parents multiple times, including a blast to their mother's face, and yet they were soooo abused and "in fear of their lives" that they should now be released based on a biased documentary! (Have their parents left their graves yet?) The "abuse excuse" was just an attorney's tactic to get them a lighter sentence and it fooled so many clueless, gullible fangirls (and fanboys) who now believe "the boys have suffered enough and should be released." Life imprison means life imprison, but in your mind "the boys" are the real victims, right? How warped and disgusting can you get?

There have always been these pathetic women with no self-esteem who obsessively write infamous killers in prison pouring out their heart and their sympathy because they're either desperate for a man -- any man -- or they identify with the killer and his feelings. (Ted Bundy had his own cheering section of women when he was on trial. They didn't care that he had brutally assaulted and murdered at least 30 other women, including a 12 year old girl. And since being jailed, Luigi Mangione has reportedly received hundreds of thousands of dollars to help with his legal defense as well as over a hundred offers of marriage.) Such women think that if they give these killers enough love, sympathy and understanding, it'll make up for the love they think the killer never had. Under which category do you fall or is it all of the above? Not too twisted. And even IF the abuse claims are true, countless people who were abused when they were younger didn't turn around and murder their abusers in cold blood. They either sought outside help or left home as soon as they could. As proved, the Menendez Brothers murdered their parents for the money so instead of whining, whimpering, and wringing your hands, inform yourself. They were rightfully convicted and sentenced and should never be released. (And guess what? There have been plenty of documented cases over the years of "children" who murdered their wealthy parents solely for their money. Were they all abused too or just greedy, self-entitled losers?)

To those who ridiculously think it's all so unfair and unjust that the brothers are still in prison: get a life and see a therapist. You have some serious issues, especially where men are concerned.