NETFLIX - ON DEMAND - DOCUMENTARY

At first look, Alejandro Hartmann's nearly two-hour documentary, The Menendez Brothers, conveys a nagging impression of déjà-vu. Namely, in Ryan Murphy's recently released The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez, the second season of the Monsters anthology series, released September 19 on Netflix.

This is due to Murphy and his team's habit of faithfully re-enacting scenes (particularly courtroom scenes) filmed for American TV. This was already the case in 2016 for the first part of the anthology American Crime Story, dealing with the trial of American football star O.J. Simpson.

The original pleadings and main testimonies, including those of the Menendez brothers, Lyle, born in 1968, and Erik, in 1970, accused of killing their parents with a rifle one evening in 1989, are featured. Their lawyers had pleaded self-defense as the two sons feared for their lives after threatening to reveal their father's sexual abuse.

Initially, the two young men had called the police themselves, claiming that the crime might have been committed by the Mafia, who were out to get their father, José Menendez (1944-1989). This Cuban immigrant had risen from nothing to become vice president of the Hertz car rental company, then director of operations for the RCA record label.

The police were quick to find flaws in the brothers' stories and became interested in their lavish lifestyle after the death of their parents. A tip-off revealed a confession to the murder made during taped sessions with a psychotherapist. They were arrested in March 1990 for murder in the first degree.

At their trial in 1994, they detailed the brutality, bullying and repeated rapes committed by their father and covered up by their mother. The jury could not agree on the verdict: the women claimed extenuating circumstances; the men did not. We were still a long way from #metoo, let alone #metooBoys.

Some jurors bear witness during the documentary. They claim that the second trial in 1996 was botched, depriving them of many essential witness statements. What's more, the Menendez case, which had captured the imagination of the American public, was swept aside by that of O.J. Simpson (1947-2024), accused of the double murder of his ex-wife and her partner on June 12, 1994. The two brothers were sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

While the Menendez' two former lawyers declined to participate in the documentary, the prosecutor from the first trial, Pamela Bozanich, plays an important role. The partisan and insulting violence of her comments is shocking. She calls the brothers "dumb jock killers" (although their statements, recorded over the phone, suggest quite the opposite) and accuses the defense of being "fabricated" and "immoral."

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