Spoilt rich kids Lyle and Erik Menendez murdered their parents in cold blood then set about spending their inheritance. Thankfully, one of the brothers found it difficult to live with himself, and blabbed to his therapist. Seven months after the crime, they were arrested. After an extremely long remand they stood trial in what is quite possibly a unique setting, a jury for each brother. Hung juries resulted, but a prompt retrial delivered speedy justice.
This documentary covers only the first trial because it was made before the second one started. In any case there was far less appeal for the retrial because the judge banned cameras from the courtroom. The defense was based entirely on lies and flim-flam, because no one in his or her right mind could have credited any of the rubbish they spouted about sexual abuse. Jose Menendez was a high achiever who had lived the stereotypical American dream, a Cuban immigrant who came to the United States and carved out a fortune for himself by hard work. It was only natural he would expect his sons to follow in his footsteps, especially as they would never have to work as hard as he did. That may have made him overbearing or even at times a bully, but a sexual abuser?
This documentary is one of many films devoted to this sick tale, and does its best to present a balanced view of what was clearly a terrible crime that had only one valid interpretation, murder for greed, with a fistful of hate thrown in.
