“The Iron Claw” (2023) is a fictionalized biographical sports drama focusing on the first two generations of the Von Erich professional wrestling family from the 1960s through the 1990s. Kevin Von Erich (Zac Efron), the oldest surviving Von Erich brother, witnesses his families’ highs and lows as he is forced to depart from his father’s example to carve out a better life for him and his family even at the risk of losing his father’s favor.
“The Iron Claw” starts in black and white and focuses on the Von Erich patriarch, Fritz Von Erich (Holt McCallany), during his wrestling days with his pregnant wife Doris (Maura Tierney) and two children, Kevin and David. The bookends of this film reflect that Fritz and Doris were real, vulnerable people with Fritz usually setting the family’s course and Doris following with a measure of skepticism, which will vanish when her sons express any reservations. Doris’ faith in Fritz equals if not surpasses her faith in God, but Fritz’s faith in wrestling outpaces hers. Unlike God, Doris sacrifices more than one son on Fritz’s altar. McCallany and Tierney’s performances are chilling in terms of lack of parental warmth to their sons, but many viewers may not see the red flags in the family dynamics and confuse it with instilling valuable skills such as hard work, focus and discipline to achieve great goals. Over the course of the film, director and writer Sean Durkin partners effectively with Tierney to reflect a subtle journey of doubt for the matriarch in contrast to her resolute spouse. Even the family portrait echoes the unflinching sternness of how the family business displaced the actual family relationship.
“The Iron Claw” is Efron’s movie, and he resembles an “Incredible Hulk” era Lou Ferrigno. Full disclaimer: Kevin is the only living von Erich from the first two generations of the wrestling family so obviously the film will depict him more favorably since he is the only one around to tell the story; however, his sheer survival attests to the real-life Kevin having an objective perspective. Kevin is a gentle giant, a deferential, physically dominating jock who is the heart of the family. Efron transforms his body, so no one questions Kevin’s dedication to wrestling. There are multiple sequences devoted to Kevin enduring punishing workouts so when Kevin thinks his brothers should take care of themselves and is concerned about their physical and mental well-being, his apprehension is reasonable because the bar for himself is quite high. Will viewers recognize that Kevin’s heart may explain in part why he gradually gets displaced as his father’s favorite despite Kevin’s complete devotion and obedience to his father?
Kevin has added motivation to take care of himself when Pam (Lily James) appoints herself as his girlfriend and instantly fits into the family while debunking the superstitious side of the family: vague allusions to a Von Erich curse, which gets clarified as the movie unfolds. Their marriage creates a slight crack on the enmeshed hold that Fritz has on the family to conflate their lives with his dreams and needs. “The Iron Claw” makes it appear that he is the only brother that got married, but the others had relationships and children, which is not depicted in the film. David (Harris Dickinson), the next oldest surviving child and an organic, eloquent showboat, gets dad’s favor out of birth order for his moves in the ring and on camera. While Kevin is physically dominant, David’s theatricality is unstoppable.
Kerry (Jeremy Allen White) is missing in the first third of “The Iron Claw” because he is preparing for the Olympics, but the US boycott of the Russian hosted 1980 Olympics boomerangs him back home. Durkin and White portray Kerry as a generous brother interested in other people and curious about their interests even if it differs from his own, but as he immerses himself in the wrestling world, he gradually transforms into a more antagonistic, competitive version of Fritz. Mike (Stanley Simons), the youngest surviving brother on screen, is disinterested in wrestling and prefers music and visual arts but gradually gets sucked into the family business.
I went to an exclusive press screening of “The Iron Claw” and was surprised at the visceral audible and physical reactions to each brother’s tragic fate, which is usually restricted to public screenings with the average moviegoer. Nothing good happens to heterosexual male wrestlers in movies about wrestling. Even though the wrestling in “Foxcatcher” (2014) and “The Wrestler” (2008) are different styles, the movies seem to be cautionary tales. In this film, it is easy to confuse the brothers’ closeness with the image of a perfect family, but instead they are men in arrested development, robbed of their autonomy and almost prepubescent in their (body) hairless, inseparable existence acting like children, not even like rebellious teens, to their father. It is not normal to forgo an existence outside of one’s family or to devote one’s life to making your father (or any parent/person) happy above oneself. Tik Toker Mel Hamlett would classify Fritz as a King Baby.
While “The Iron Claw” is a dramatic and entertaining movie, it may not be that memorable or timeless because it is subtle in the way that it depicts the Von Erich’s problematic family power structure. A lot of viewers could walk away with the wrong lessons or rationalize away Fritz’s behavior by focusing on the benefits of his rearing and blaming the drawbacks on his sons instead of extracting lessons that this behavior is not an inherent, natural aspect of the eccentric wrestling world, but of cults in general. Considering that the film was already fictionalized, there was room for Durkin to connect the dots or highlight the aspects of Fritz’s rule which could be seen in any fascistic group dynamic that demands that individual sacrifice themselves and be unquestioningly obedient in exchange for the inherent respect and dignity that all human beings, especially children deserve.
If viewers are familiar with the real-life Von Erich family because they are wrestling fans, they will be annoyed at the omission of brother Chris and other details that are well-known to their fans. Viewers unfamiliar with the National Wrestling Alliance and its rules will not be able to distinguish between normal and prohibited wrestling behavior, which a referee would penalize, so the story in the ring may be hard to follow for some. Also some scenes are initially confusing because the Von Erich family are unreliable narrators who complain about feeling cheated. How much of these grievances are credible versus big talk to cover for their shortcomings. Without a character who could act like a barometer, which Durkin may have done deliberately so the viewer experienced the same confusion as the brothers, it was hard to ascertain the objective situation. The broad interludes between capturing life behind the scenes and the onscreen personas worked, but the rhythm of intercutting was indiscernible, which did not detract from the “The Iron Claw,” but may result in questioning whether the film needed to be 130 minutes.
“The Iron Claw” has a great moral. Hard work and merit do not guarantee success or happiness, nor does it make anyone immune from tragedy. The film stresses the importance of living your life, not someone else’s.
