This film explores the inner lives and motivation behind the murders of entertainment executive Jose Menendez and his wife Kitty at the hands of their sons Lyle and Erik in 1989.This film explores the inner lives and motivation behind the murders of entertainment executive Jose Menendez and his wife Kitty at the hands of their sons Lyle and Erik in 1989.This film explores the inner lives and motivation behind the murders of entertainment executive Jose Menendez and his wife Kitty at the hands of their sons Lyle and Erik in 1989.
- Awards
- 1 nomination
- Det. Leslie Zoeller
- (as Artine Brown)
- Businessman
- (as Angelo Renai)
- Directors
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- GoofsJose and Kitty Menendez were murdered in 1989, but a close-up of the bookshelf when they were shot in this film reveals book titles and editions of titles that were published after their deaths.
- Quotes
Erik Menendez: [lying on a bench in the prison workout arena, lifting a weighted bar over his head; puts it down] I wanna tell Leslie.
Lyle Menendez: [looking elsewhere] About what?
Erik Menendez: Dad.
[sits up]
Erik Menendez: About what he did to us.
Lyle Menendez: [walks past him] Are you nuts?
Erik Menendez: We don't have a case. And they have those tapes.
Lyle Menendez: [hushed] Do you know what they'll do to us in here if they find out our dad molested us?
Erik Menendez: [stands] I'm tired of keeping secrets.
Lyle Menendez: [goes on the bench to lift] I'll tell you what. You can tell her he beat you up, okay? Leave out the rest. The last time you told anyone else the truth, you put us in prison.
[weights clang and two prisoners look at them]
Erik Menendez: [leans over to Lyle] I'm not the one who confessed on tape. That was you.
[Lyle unaffectedly begins lifting arduously as Erik walks away]
In this TV version of the murders of Kitty and Jose Menendez, the younger son Eric continually dreams that he is speaking with his dead mother while trying to figure out why his mother allowed his father to continually sexually abuse him, and he is torn between his guilt for aiding his brother Lyle in murdering their parents in cold blood, and his undying love for his dead parents.
After watching this version of the film one can only come to the conclusion that Eric and Lyle Menendez murdered their parents to end years of sexual abuse by both of their parents. The court documents are factual and the brothers first trial ended in a mistrial. The second trial the judge restricted both the evidence and the witnesses that could be presented which was Eric's lawyers entire defense and as a result both brothers were sentenced to life sentences without a chance for parole.
This certainly was an abbreviated version of the two trials and one would also think that the brothers were railroaded and that no one believed in their sexual abuse defense. Nothing could be further from the truth. The prosecutors proved beyond a shadow of any doubt that Eric and Lyle planned the murders (purchasing their shotguns weeks in advance using a friends stolen ID card without his prior knowledge) and tried to hide their sloppy crime of pure greed for their parents wealth.
This version was far too much "dream sequence" and simply just ignored the magnitude of facts for fictional dream sequences that painted a distinct visual picture of sexual abuse which purportedly justified the murders. If you want to see a better version(s) of the film see either the 1994 version Menendez: A Killing In Beverly Hills, and/or the 2017 eight (8) part mini series titled: Law & Order True Crime.
- Ed-Shullivan
- Feb 18, 2018
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