The Iron Claw review — Tragic tale, but a terrific movie

Written and Directed by Sean Durkin | 132 mins | ▲▲▲▲△

I came to this movie with a small personal investment: I watched World Class Championship Wrestling for about a year when I was about 13 or 14. I cheered the three Von Erichs who were wrestling when I watched — David was already gone — especially the huge, golden god, Kerry, and the older brother, Kevin, who always wrestled barefoot. I got to know the various other characters — The Freebirds, Ric Flair, and Jake “The Snake” Roberts. In the years since I’d heard the Von Erich family had suffered more than its fair share of bad times and I’d watched their episode of the Vice wrestling history show, Dark Side Of The Ring.

Sean Durkin (The Nest, Marcy May Martha Marlene) has taken the story and adapted it with more than a little artistic license. Some of the brothers’ problems with drugs is soft-pedalled, and the youngest brother, Chris, who arrived in the ring last, he’s written out entirely. Nonetheless, this is a powerful drama that refuses to be heavy handed in its themes, instead insinuating them over the running time. It’s both a sports movie and a family drama that’s really about the trauma of relentless competition driven by a poisonous parent, how it leads to addiction, mental illness, self-destruction, and death.

Fritz Von Erich (Holt McCallany, who was so good in Mindhunter) was a Texas wrestler who never really achieved the biggest goals in the sport, and accordingly raised his sons to be athletes and do it for him. They’re remarkably supportive of each other, which is surprising given how much they’re pushed by their father — he picked favourites, but told them the roster can always change. Perhaps it was the love and Christian faith from their mother, Doris (a terrific Maura Tierney, making the best of her brief screen time), that helped bind them together.

Kevin (a super-ripped Zac Efron, broader than the actual Kevin but not nearly as tall) is the heir apparent, but then David (Harris Dickinson of Triangle Of Sadness and Scrapper) takes the lead, later followed by Kerry (Jeremy Allen White of The Bear and Fingernails,), a shot-putter whose first chance at athletic greatness was denied when the US boycotted the Olympic Games in Moscow. The fourth on Fritz’s list of favourite sons is Mike (Stanley Simons), who disappoints because he’s interested in music. Fritz, who sacrificed his own creative work for athletic achievement, makes it clear he won’t respect any son who takes that path seriously.

The scenes in the ring are thrilling, and the actors playing the brothers, all of whom are in phenomenal shape, acquit themselves well. I can imagine the intense training they must’ve gone through to be convincing in these roles, and they’ve all been given wigs to accurately ape those truly awful ’80s shag haircuts, which go a long way to convince for the era.

The film also makes time for Kevin’s personal life, when he falls in love with a local woman named Pam (Lily James), which gives an avenue to show how Kevin, the most thoughtful of the clan, manages the fear he’s inherited, the idea his family name comes with a curse.

None of this is wildly groundbreaking drama — this is probably Durkin’s most conventional film yet, and the first to be based on real life events — but that’s no slight on how moving or effective it is. The performances across the board are excellent, and Durkin slowly and deliberately lays the ground for a third act of devastation, where each character finds their own heart of darkness. It becomes clear how Fritz has orchestrated each character’s downfall by projecting his overweening ambition on his sons, a tapestry of male toxicity.

Given the pacing of the film, which takes place over more than a decade, it can’t help but fall victim to a few biopic issues — it’s a shame that one character, who is maimed in an accident, his return to the ring, which must’ve seemed nearly impossible, happens off-screen. But mostly, The Iron Claw, named after Fritz’s signature move that he taught to his sons, works remarkably well, largely thanks to the young cast who are all on their game.