Title: The Iron Claw
Describe This Movie In One Rocky III Quote:
THUNDERLIPS: It’s all fake! Right, meatball?
Brief Plot Synopsis: Worst of Backyard Wrestling
Rating Using Random Objects Relevant To The Film: 3 Dalton eagle claws out of 5
Tagline: “Sons. Brothers. Champions.”
Better Tagline: “Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself.”
Not So Brief Plot Synopsis: Wrestler Kevin Von Erich (Zac Efron) has a lot to live up to, not the least of which is father Jack’s (Holt McCallany) failure to win a National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) championship. Making his own way up the ranks, Kevin teams up with his brothers — David (Harris Dickinson) at first, then Kerry (Jeremy Allen White) and Mike (Stanley Simons) — and makes a run at the world title before tragedies start piling up, making Kevin wonder if there really is such a thing as a “Von Erich curse.”
“Critical” Analysis: The Iron Claw is Daddy Issues: The Movie with A24’s imprimatur. It starts with Jack (who goes by the nom de lutte “Fritz”), reassuring wife Doris (Maura Tierney) that he’s well on his way to a championship. Clearly, the NWA had other plans, because the next thing we know, it’s 1979, and oldest Von Erich boy Kevin wins the NWA Texas Championship, earning earns his World Championship title shot against Harley Race. Sadly, he loses after getting discombobulated when Race suplexes him onto the arena’s cement floor.
Continuing the family’s disappointment, Kerry is training to compete in discus at the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics, and we all know how that turned out (if not, you can learn more about the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan at your local library). Dad Jack naturally uses this and Kevin getting leapfrogged by Ric Flair in the NWA as an opportunity to exhort his sons to practice even harder.
It’s a family dynamic that’d be recognizable to everyone from Andrew Clark to Ben Meechum. Jack (McCallany at his McCallanyest) freely pits his sons against each other, while Doris rebuffs Kevin’s attempts at a heart-to-heart, instead insisting he talk to David or any family member but her.
The one thing the real-life Kevin told writer/director Sean Durkin to include was the love the brothers had for each other, and Durkin does make this apparent. Guess the one good thing about overbearing abusive fathers is they sometimes forge some pretty strong sibling bonds.
We don’t need to go into too much detail about all the misfortunes that befell the Von Erichs. If you followed wrestling or lived in Texas in the ’80s and ’90s, you’re likely already aware of at least some of the story. The movie makes it clear how much the accumulation of grief impacts Kevin, and Durkin compresses history enough that these events take place even closer together on film than in real life.
He also omits one of the real-life brothers (Chris) entirely , because — no joke — including him would’ve been *too* tragic.
The “Inspired by a true story” that opens The Iron Claw is a bit of a red flag. “Inspired by” does a lot of heavy lifting, and since Durkin chooses to focus on the brothers, we only see brief glimpses into the backgrounds of the non-Kevin siblings. Efron gives a great performance, even if Kevin’s main character trait is stoic obedience to his father. It’s neck and neck with the sincerity in the love he feels for his siblings, however.
Dickinson does a fine job, in spite of David’s slim backstory, and White has been playing psychologically compromised characters so long that he just had to slap on a Texas accent. The film itself is about as mainstream as A24 gets, minus a scene where a ghost spies on Doris as she watches a wrestling match on TV.
Yeah.
The Iron Claw isn’t a deep dive into toxic masculinity; it’s far too obvious for that. Nor is it a wider look at the machinations of pro wrestling in the ’80s (which it sounds like a lot of people wanted), and would admittedly make for an interesting film or series. And it’s ironic that the Von Erich saga is so miserable that Durkin had to dial the grief back. Still, as a window into one family’s perseverance (or lack thereof) in the face of tragedy, it does the job.
The Iron Claw is in theaters today.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
