It is incredible that in more than three decades of exhaustive discussions and investigations about the lives of Erick and Lyle Menendez, as well as the crime they committed together in 1989, there is still material for films, series, books, and documentaries. But apparently, there is. Riding on the success of the series Monsters: The Erick and Lyle Menendez Story, the documentary The Menendez Brothers wants to tell us “the whole story” about them.

There are no “new” facts exactly, but we hear the brothers’ interviews (recorded by phone in prison) where there is once again, as is common on the platform, a complex use of the “documentary” format in the form of statements prepared by lawyers and press officers. It is no different here. “Most of these documentaries did not have the brothers. There was a series that had Erik, but Lyle had never spoken since the 90s, since the interview with Barbara Walters, I think,” the director commented on Tudum. “It seems simple, but it’s new. We should have both brothers. But not only that, we should also have the prosecution. We should have the other point of view, and that will be different,” he continued.

We go back in time with the same arguments – some never-before-seen photos – and testimonies, largely defending the release of the brothers who murdered their parents and who are on TikTok and we are in the same situation.

Thirty years ago, when the two were convicted, almost no one believed their testimony that the premeditated murder in detail was due to fear and trauma from continuous sexual abuse by their father, José Menendez. Everything went against a sympathetic view of the two brothers: they were rich, handsome, and reckless, they were almost always smiling, and they celebrated the death of their parents with parties, trips, and million-dollar purchases. Not even their family confirming that their upbringing was dysfunctional and that there were reports of abuse between them helped them.

The TikTok generation’s goal is not only to reshape society’s values but also to be able to reverse what they consider to be past errors. Literally. And the Menendez Brothers have become their main goal.

We know all this, so why another documentary? According to the Argentine director, Alejandro Hartmann, we still haven’t reached a conclusion about the truth and we still haven’t heard the story in their own words. I would rephrase the synopsis as a documentary where they reflect on their almost 35 years behind bars (they were arrested six months after the murder, in 1989) and how they now look back on the past, and even more so, to the future.

The details of the abuse don’t change, there is a part that is not in Ryan Murphy‘s series, which is how they endured 21 years of sentences in separate prisons and how today they try to forgive each other for everything that happened.

The testimony that has generated the most impact is not from Lyle or Erick, who gained maturity and leadership in prison through the documentary, but from prosecutor Pamela Bozanich. She maintains her conviction that there was no abuse, that it is a lie that did not stick, and that the TikTok movement is despicable. “If this is how we are going to judge cases now, why not do polls? You present the facts and everyone decides on TikTok and goes home,” she says irritably. “Your beliefs are not facts. They are just beliefs,” she says.

Up until this point, I thought about agreeing, but when she warned me that she was armed and that she was ready to defend herself if they went to her house, I got scared.

In the end, with the brothers finally getting their sentences reviewed in 2024, the overexposure – even more sympathetic – is a defense strategy so that they can gain freedom.

“The truth is very complex to understand, and in a case like this, it is not black or white. You will probably never understand what really happened. It’s a paradox in a way. You try to dig into something to finally understand that you will probably never understand why it happened,” Alejandro explained. “I tried to show an open view and the different views of the case. Of course, I wanted to let the brothers speak. I wanted to give the audience material to draw their own conclusions, but especially to make them think about this story as a tragedy. This is a tragedy for everyone. It was a tragedy for everyone, of course, for the parents who are dead, but also for the brothers,” he concluded.

In November we will know the final chapter of this drama.

No one asked, but I believe the brothers about the abuse and I also think that more than 30 years in prison was an appropriate punishment for what they did, especially since in 21 of those years they deliberately separated the two. There are criminals of equal or worse responsibility who were released and I believe they deserve to be reevaluated. I don’t know if I would have thought so three decades ago, but I do today.

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