Never ever tell a professional wrestling fan, or a professional wrestler for that matter, that wrestling is “fake.” Sure, the narratives are pre-written and the actual rules of sport wrestling are all but thrown out the window, but what these athletes/performers do is very real. How real? So real that the mortality rate of wrestlers is unfathomable. Be it the years of maintaining a hulking physique by whatever means necessary, the constant touring and performance schedule, or the fact that taking a steel chair to the head, choreographed as it may be, still requires taking a steel chair to the head, the miles accrued by the body of a professional wrestler put every other athlete to comparative shame. It’s a simple fact that wrestlers tend to just up and die. Some are young, some are older, but few get the honor of tapping out due to natural causes.
I’ve often joked that if The Rock ever becomes president, he’ll likely die before the end of his term, thus passing the presidency to his VP, Kevin Hart.
The Von Erich family is no exception to this tragic rule and, in fact, seem supernaturally more susceptible to it. So much so that wrestling mythology speaks of the “Von Erich Curse.” This curse isnt something created by historians either. The Von Erichs were well aware of their purported doom, and as depicted in The Iron Claw, were pushing themselves to extreme limits to avoid it. A self-fulfilling prophecy if there ever was one.
The Iron Claw, written and directed by Sean Durkin (himself a wrasslin’ fan), is about as bleak as movies come, telling the tale of the Von Erich family and their ostensible curse through the eyes of Kevin Von Erich (Zac Efron – congrats on your walk of fame star). His father, Fritz (Holt McCallany) is a former wrestler and the current owner of World Class Championship Wrestling, a Texas-based league. Fritz had some success in his day, but never achieved the status that he dreamed of. As such, he’s attempting to live vicariously through his children. This isn’t to say that Fritz is a bad guy, but he’s a man of dated principles; a man who courts a quiet desperation that he’d rather die than ever expose to the world. He tells his sons that they must be tough. They must work the hardest. They must succeed. If they always put forth their absolute best, nothing, not even a curse, could ever bring them down. Cue tears from every millennial in the audience who ever worked too hard to please their father.
Kevin is the son who seems most interested in wrestling on his own accord, while his brothers each fall into the sport as a matter of circumstance and patriarchal pressure. Kerry (Jeremy Allen White) is nudged into the craft when his track & field dreams didn’t pan out. Mike (Stanley Simons) reluctantly pursues the ring in defiance of his own talent as a musician. David (Harris Dickinson) also comes from an athletic background, but finds his niche in wrestling via his presence “on the mic.” Kevin may be all-in on wrestling, but it’s David who could cut a promo. Together, they prove to be an incredible force in the ring, but tension emerges from the non-stop pressure to succeed.
“The rankings can always change,” says Fritz to his children in regards to which of his progeny is his favorite, “everyone can work their way up and down.”
Mom (Maura Tierney) loves her children, but seems outranked to the point of being distant. When Kevin comes to her for guidance and asks if they can talk, she responds, however warmly, with “That’s what your brothers are for.”
Yet despite the constant push to best one another, the Von Erich boys share a bond so tight as to be aspirational, and it’s captured perfectly by the foursome of young actors. The love they share is real and palpable. This goes to their parents as well. Even with the clashing of personalities, and a dynamic that’s dated to the point of being damaging, there’s a wealth of love amidst the Von Erich clan. More so than one often sees in a “normal” family.
The Iron Claw proves to be an actor showcase, helped into success by flawless casting. McCallany and Tierney make the marriage of the senior Von Erichs feel real and lived-in, rising to a level of verisimilitude that is not easily achievable in a story that features such strong personalities (and physiques so heightened as to be occasionally distracting). Lily James also shines as Pam, the wrestling fan who ultimately falls in love with Kevin Von Erich. She often provides the one dissenting voice to the creed of Fritz.
But you’re here for the powerful foursome at the center. We all know this, and lemme tell ya, they don’t disappoint. Efron, Dickinson, Simons, and White are all tapped into something big here, each giving some of the finest performances of 2023. We’ve come a long way since High School Musical and Baywatch, and it’s phenomenal to see Efron taking a risk with a role like this. It could have easily fallen into the realm of cartoons, but he plays it to perfection, not just stealing the movie, but carrying it across the finish line without ever betraying the overall tone. I would love to see him in the Oscar conversation.
Durkin’s script comes from a place of admiration for the Von Erich family as well as for the art of professional wrestling itself. There’s no judgment placed against any one character, nor is the sport ever made to look dumb. If anything, it extracts whatever images may exist of the family and brings them back down to earth, reminding all of us that they are human beings with fragile souls and fragile bodies. As for the sport itself, even those with little knowledge of how it works will likely come away with a newfound respect for the craft, and a better understanding of how a “win” can mean so much, even if it is scripted (Claw takes a more fulsome approach to the interplay between the art and the business than does Fighting With My Family, an excellent pro-wrestling film that has very different goals).
Being such a bleak film, and one that is chock full of tragedy, it’s remarkable how gorgeous it often looks. Durkin (and cinematographer Mátyás Erdély) capture the visual poetry of professional wrestling seen from a distance while also highlighting the bone-crunching nature of its finer details. There’s a smoggy glow that pervades the fighting sequences which contributes to the feeling of magic that fans of wrestling crave, and purveyors of wrestling work hard to maintain. When this glow fades, however, and reality must set in, a crispness overtakes the frame, reminding us all that the blurred lines of fantasy must always give way to the hard edge of reality; to the truth of mortality.
It’s a difficult film, and if you go in blind like I did, you will be frequently shocked and gut-punched. But the fact of the matter is that the Von Erich family went through Hell, and The Iron Claw, as stuffed with misfortune as it is, is only a segment of the real story (there’s a fifth Von Erich brother who didn’t make it into the film, despite also meeting a terrible end). On the one hand, it would be great to see the whole story told. On the other, perhaps that’s all best left up to a documentary. What we have here is as close to perfect as a sports biopic can get. The pacing is on point, the characters are perfectly realized, and the themes all hit home hard. To upset this remarkable balance could be disastrous. Why mess up one of the best films of the year by breaking kayfabe?
Directed by Sean Durkin
Written by Sean Durkin
Starring Zac Efron, Lily James, Maura Tierney, Harris Dickinson
Rated R, 130 minutes
