Whether you consider it art, theater, or sport, professional wrestling has been a mainstay of pop culture entertainment for more than half a century. Until the late 1970s, however, it hadn’t yet evolved into the multi-billion business it is today. Over time, personality-driven live shows, linear and cable broadcasts, and breakout stars transitioning into movies and TV have become the norm. Before then, regional promotions were the norm, and titles – the end-all and be-all for professional wrestlers – were typically regional or statewide, not national or international.
Arriving on the regional circuit during an upward spike in the sport’s popularity was the Texas-based Von Erich clan, the subject of Sean Durkin’s newest film, The Iron Claw. The film, named for the team’s signature wrestling move, follows the story of brothers Kevin (Zac Efron), David (Harris Dickinson), Kerry (Jeremy Allen White), and Mike Von Erich (Stanley Simons), brothers literally and figuratively born and raised into professional wrestling. The group won and lost regional titles under the manipulative direction of their father, Fritz (Holt McCallany), a longtime wrestler himself driven by bitterness after his own failure to win his own World Heavyweight Championship Title. He ruthlessly trains his sons to follow in his boot-steps, winning where their father lost and well beyond that too.
Far from following the familiar tropes of standard biopics, The Iron Claw coalesces around Kevin, the oldest surviving member of the Von Erich clan. As the second son in a family of sons, Kevin treats his responsibilities and obligations to his family in and out of the ring with near monk-like severity. In an early montage, we see him devote every waking minute to improving himself physically: going for a run on the family farm in the early morning, hitting the weights soon thereafter, and then practicing moves in the family’s makeshift ring, all under the perpetually judgmental, critical eye of his father.
Driven to obtain his father’s rare, often fleeting approval, Kevin pushes himself to physical, mental, and emotional extremes. Slip-ups inside the ring or while shooting promos outside the ring become moments for damaging self-flagellation. It’s only when Kevin meets Pam Adkisson (Lily James), an assertive fan who patiently waits for him after a local wrestling match to ask him on a date, that Kevin’s views about himself and his place in the (wrestling) world begin to shift – at first almost imperceptibly, later far more dramatically.
Written and directed by Durkin (The Nest, Martha Marcy May Marlene), The Iron Claw takes an unironic, camp-free, and ultimately sympathetic view toward the Von Erich clan. The film follows their rare highs and frequent lows, driven by Fritz’s stunted ambitions but also by brotherly bonds forged through the crucible of shared experiences. Whatever triumphs follow their depressingly regular tragedies tend to be fleeting, but rarely less-than-welcome and, more often than not, well-deserved.
The so-called “Von Erich curse,” as described by Kevin in the film’s opening moments, becomes a driving force in The Iron Claw’s second half, externalizing Kevin’s fears about himself, his family, and eventually any children he might have with Pam. How the Von Erich clan survived cataclysmic reversals, multiple tragedies, and an indifferent universe borders on the unimaginable. Yet the broad arc of the Von Erich family’s story — give or take a brother — did indeed happen. The survivors somehow managed to escape the shackles of the past represented by Fritz and eventually thrive on their own. That arc alone makes The Iron Claw a story worth telling and worth seeing on whatever-sized screen you can.
Anchored by a soulful, career-best performance from Zac Efron — who transformed himself physically into Hulk-like form for the role — and bolstered by a talented, skilled cast who meet every moment in or out of the ring, The Iron Claw emerges as a cautionary tale on multiple levels. Durkin’s film ultimately encompasses a thoughtful, provocative critique of masculinity, patriarchy, and late 20th-century “winner-take-all” capitalism. It’s a harrowing, heart-rending story of a family beset by the kind of outrageous fortune that would be considered absurd if it were purely fictional and not the real world.
The Iron Claw hits theaters Friday, December 22, courtesy of A24.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=8KVsaoveTbw%3Fsi%3Dqysj6hQyZGKJ9wSq