Review: The Iron Claw
The saddest thing to happen in wrestling since Shawn Michaels superkicked Ric Flair.
The Iron Claw
Written and directed by Sean Durkin
2023
Well goddamn if this isn’t the saddest movie I’ve seen in a long time. I was aware going in that the story of the Von Erich wrestling family was tragic, but I was unprepared for the deep level of emotional anguish that awaited me. It probably didn’t help that I watched the movie with my teenage daughter, who broke down into sobs by the end, provoking plenty of tears of my own.
The thing that really makes this movie work is its sense of time and place and its realistically-drawn characters. Holt McCallany plays Fritz Von Erich, the head of what he wants to become a family wrestling dynasty. While he was a semi-successful wrestler during his time, he never got to become the world champion, and now he’s pushing his sons to carry on his legacy and grab the brass ring he could never quite reach. As of 1979, he’s running the regional World Class Championship Wrestling promotion in Dallas, featuring his sons as the rising stars who continue to use his signature move, the titular Iron Claw.
Zac Efron plays Kevin, the eldest son and the one who seems to be in the best position to take over leadership, although his younger brothers soon start nipping at his heels. Dave, played by Harris Dickinson, is quickly growing into a charismatic performer who excels in the ring and on the mic, and their college-age brother Kerry (played by the angsty young man du jour, Jeremy Allen White) joins them after his dreams of becoming an Olympic track and field athlete are dashed when the United States boycotts the 1980 games in Moscow. The youngest brother, Mike (Stanley Simons) seems ready to start wrestling soon, although he’s also a budding musician who plays in a garage band. So much promise, just waiting for the worst to happen.
Things seem good at first, with the brothers enthusiastically joining together to put on great wrestling matches and gaining the attention of other figures in the community, potentially leading to the championship matches that their dad is pushing for so hard. But we do see cracks in this positive image, with the father being a stern taskmaster who openly ranks his sons from most to least favorite and gives them a hard time if they fall short of his expectations. There’s also some jealousy that shows up as Efron, the oldest and most experienced wrestler, begins to be eclipsed by his brothers.
And then tragedy strikes, casting a pall over everything that happens throughout the rest of the film. Rather than spoiling things, I’ll just note that one thing after another seems to drag the family down, ranging from unexpected medical emergencies, motor vehicle accidents, debilitating injuries, and drug use leading to suicidal tendencies. It’s devastating stuff, barely letting up and stacking terrible experiences on top of each other to the point where you wonder how the surviving family members could bear it. It would seem to be too much to believe, except it’s all generally true, and in fact, writer/director Sean Durkin even cut out an entire family member who also died tragically in real life.
Through it all, Zac Efron excels as the brother who is trying to hold everything together, internalizing the ongoing devastation and trying to protect what remains of the family. He stays as stoic as possible, but through his expressions and body language, he makes it clear that he’s being torn up inside by the near-constant losses he’s experiencing. When he does manage to express how he’s feeling, he does so by telling his wife how scared he is that he’s going to pass on the family curse to his own children, even going so far as to leave his family and sleep in the wrestling arena’s office to limit contact with them.
Efron isn’t alone in selling the sadness though. Maura Tierney, playing the family matriarch Doris, also turns in a heartbreaking performance. In one standout scene, she can’t bear to put on her funeral dress for the second time after already living through the horrible experience of losing one son. Jeremy Allen White is also as good as expected, although his character gets a bit of a short shrift, falling into addictive and self-destructive behavior that takes place mostly off-screen, with us mostly seeing Efron desperately trying to help him and prevent yet another tragedy.
So, it all ends up being so sad that you can barely take it, culminating in a scene in which the only thing left for Efron to hope for is an imagined afterlife in which his brothers are happy together. However, the film does end on a note of hope and a feeling of perseverance in which the remaining family members can make the most of the relationships they do have and work to build a strong, lasting bonds. It’s a reminder that it’s good to find something positive wherever possible and that you can still build something good even if nearly everything else has been reduced to rubble and ashes. Yay?
Post script: The wrestling in the movie is generally good, conveying the thrills of in-ring action and the ways wrestlers put their bodies on the line. However, there was one big sticking point for me in the portrayal of Ric Flair. He’s played by Aaron Dean Eisenberg, who seems to try his best but just can’t capture the charisma and swagger that Flair seemed to convey so effortlessly in his heyday. Eisenberg gets a few of the physical moves down, but his verbal delivery is just wrong, which is upsetting for those of us who know how good Flair could be when he was proclaiming his greatness and delivering his trademark “Wooooo!” It seems like a real missed opportunity; surely they could have gotten the Miz or somebody to come in and give their best Flair impression. It’s only a very small part of the movie, and it’s by no means a dealbreaker, but it definitely offended my nerdy sensibilities.