Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Motive’ on Netflix, a True Crime Documentary Series About an Israeli Boy Who Murdered His Entire Family

A disturbing murder case in Israel is examined in The Motive, the latest entry in Netflix’s ever-growing true crime catalog. In 1986, a 13-year-old boy took his father’s service M-16 and brutally murdered his parents and two sisters, leaving the rest of the world to figure out exactly why he committed this heinous crime — hence the title of this four-part limited series. Directors Tali Shemesh and Asaf Sudri interview a variety of investigators, litigators and others, in a quest to answer what may be an unanswerable question.

THE MOTIVE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Fad in on Avi Samuel, a youth investigator for the Israeli Police Dept.

The Gist: Samuel recounts what he saw when he was called to a home in the Ein Karem district of Jerusalem, in gruesome detail. He describes with great specificity what the victims looked like after they were shot point blank in the face with an M-16. Four people, the Cohen family, were dead. We see weathered footage from the point of view of TV news reporters, and stills of the crime scene — reenactments or archival footage, we can’t be sure, but an opening title card tells us both are used to tell this story. Downstairs, a mother and father were dead. Upstairs, two sisters, one of whom is positioned as if she didn’t see or hear it coming. Faces of bodies are covered with blankets; blood is on the walls and floor, pooled on ledges.

Corroborating Samuel’s account are a forensics detective and news reporter, and we see both of them at work, the former sifting through details as the latter makes sure the cameraman is getting good footage. Samuel says none of the initial evidence pointed at activity by a terrorist or burglar, assumptions that are soon confirmed. He learns the boy who lived there fled to a nearby home, so Samuel tracked him down to question him. We get testimonials from neighbors who say they’d get together every Saturday night to socialize, families taking turns hosting gatherings. “They were angels,” one man says. “They were good people.”

At first, the kid told Samuel a burglar did it, but soon confesses to the crime. His father had recently completed military reserve duty, and taught the boy how to use the M-16. The family had recently watched the film Papillon, and Samuel says the boy brought up a specific scene, which we now see: Steve McQueen’s character talks to a fellow prison inmate, who reveals that he killed his entire family. Samuel asked the boy if his parents had abused him, or if there was any other trouble in the family, and the boy said no. Then Samuel says he picked up the boy, wrapped him in a blanket so photographers couldn’t take his picture, and took him to a car. To be continued.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Effectively blending documentary and fiction filmmaking is tricky — Errol Morris’ Wormwood is among the best examples of the hybrid style.

Our Take: Transparency isn’t The Motive’s strong suit. It’s difficult to tell whether the footage we see is legit-grainy archival film or dramatic re-creations made to look like legit-grainy archival film. Werner Herzog’s pursuit of the “ecstatic truth” — manufacturing scenes so he can cut to the deeper truth of the story — is an honorable philosophical goal for a documentary film, but The Motive smudges its presentation of events to the point of distraction. If some of the footage in the debut episode is real, it’s extraordinary. It’s absolutely possible that it exists, even if it’s improbable. Why are we thinking about filmmaking and storytelling techniques when the directors’ goal is to dig into a troublesome mystery about human behavior? (One assumes Shemesh and Sudri wanted a high-drama presentation, but likely didn’t have the shots and footage they thought they needed to hook an audience.)

The debut episode is structurally flawed. The narrative hops around needlessly, in a slightly confusing fashion; it’s repetitive, and feels padded to reach full-episode length, 30 minutes that could easily be cut to 20. Shemesh and Sudri clearly want to establish the boy as a disconcerting presence that’ll carry through the next three episodes — via a likely re-enactment shot in which he turns and looks out a window directly at the camera — but he’s characterized wholly by one interviewee, the sturdy but somewhat uncharismatic Samuel, rendering the kid’s chilling testimony diluted and ineffective.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: A news reporter stands near the cop car with Samuel and the boy in it as it pulls away.

Sleeper Star: There’s great sadness in the eyes of forensics detective Haim Siani as he describes how difficult it was to investigate the crime scene. His earnest voice most accurately reflects the tragedy of the moment.

Most Pilot-y Line: “He had a look in his eyes that I remember, though many years have gone by, and I’ve been through things since, but that’s a look you can’t forget. How’s it described in books? Spine-chilling?” — Samuel

Our Call: SKIP IT. The Motive is theoretically fascinating, but it never truly sets its hook. Considering the oodles of true crime fodder available to stream these days, it pays to be picky.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream The Motive on Netflix