Hollywood is stunned when entertainment executive Jose Menendez (Benito Martinez) and his wife Kitty (Courtney Love) are brutally gunned down in their Beverly Hills home. Hollywood is shocked a second time when Jose and Kitty’s two sons, Erik (Myko Oliver) and Lyle (Nico Tortorella), are arrested and charged with the crime. A third shock comes when Erik and Lyle admit to killing their parents but claim that it was done in self-defense. They tell a harrowing story of being physically and sexually abused by their father, and they portray their mother as being his enabler. High-powered defense attorney Leslie Abramson (Meredith Scott Lynn) is hired to defend Erik in his trial. A final shock comes when it’s discovered that 20-something Lyle is bald and has been wearing a wig since he was a teenager.
Menendez: Blood Brothers aired on Lifetime in 2017, several years before the better-known Menendez brothers miniseries aired on Netflix. However, both Blood Brothers and Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story suffer from the same problem. On the one hand, the Menendez brothers are obviously guilty and, while everyone seems to agree that Jose could be a harsh taskmaster when it comes to his sons, not everyone agrees that he was abusive. (And indeed, it’s interesting to note that, while both parents were shot at close range, Kitty was the one that the brothers really seemed to be obsessed with punishing.) On the other hand, no one wants to admit that someone could lie about being abused and, as a result, many people feel like they have almost an obligation to believe the claims of the Menendez brothers. Monsters handled this issue by refusing to take a definite side. The first half of the series was devoted to the brothers telling their story while the second half dealt with the lives of Jose and Kitty. Blood Brothers deals with this issue by focusing on Erik as the more sympathetic of the two brothers and essentially suggesting that anything bad that happened was totally the fault of Lyle. Erik just wants to be a good son, a good defendant, and ultimately a good prisoner. But dangit, arrogant old Lyle with his bald head and his smug smirk just keeps getting in the way!
That said, Blood Brothers is definitely on the side of Lyle and Erik. Jose is portrayed as a tyrant and the brothers are portrayed as being two somewhat spoiled rich kids who were ultimately pushed to murder by the abuse that they suffered. The ghost of Kitty shows up throughout the film and, for the most part, she seems to be sympathetic to her sons. At the very least, she doesn’t give them a hard time about killing her. (If I were her, I would never stop making them feel guilty about it.) Love gives a fairly good performance in the role and keeps you guessing as to whether or not she’s really a ghost or just a figment of the brothers’ imagination. It’s a well-made film, even if its biases are pretty clear from the start. I’d recommend it over Monsters if only because Blood Brothers gets the job done in 90 minutes and there’s something to be said for not wasting time.
