A film review by Craig J. Koban January 10, 2023

THE IRON CLAW

2023, R, 132 mins.

Zac Efron as Kevin Von Erich  /  Jeremy Allen White as Kerry Von Erich  /  Harris Dickinson as David Von Erich  /  Maura Tierney as Doris Von Erich  /  Stanley Simons as Mike Von Erich  /  Holt McCallany as Fritz Von Erich  /  Lily James as Pam Adkisson  /  Cazzey Louis Cereghino as Bruiser Brody  /  Kevin Anton as Harley Race  /  Maxwell Friedman as Lance Von Erich  /  Brady Pierce as Michael Hayes  /  Aaron Dean Eisenberg as Ric Flair  /  Ryan Nemeth as Gino Hernandez  /  Chad Governale as Gary Hart  /  Michael Harney as Bill Mercer

Much of this film is based on historical record.  Discussing any of the events of its story will prove to be impossible without reporting key facts and details.  For those unfamiliar with the main players and particulars of this film - and if you want to go in completely cold - then consider yourself spoiler warned.  

There's a small, but completely gut-wrenching moment in writer/director Sean Durkin's THE IRON CLAW that really got to me. 

Kevin Von Erich (played in a career-defining and Oscar nomination-worthy performance by Zach Efron) gazes at his young sons playing on a nearby field.  He starts to openly weep in front of them.  The kids walk over to console their father and ask him what's wrong.  

Emotionally ravaged, he replies, "I used to be a brother."  

The Von Erichs were a real-life Texan pro-wrestling family dynasty in the 1980s whose patriarch - Fritz Adkisson - used to make huge waves as the ultimate heel (bad guy) who went under a Nazi sympathizer moniker (he would take the stage name of Von Erich, and it stuck with him and his family for good).  When he retired and ended up being the promoter for his regionally based World Class Championship Wrestling, he urged all of his sons to partake in the family business.  Most of them ended up working for him (including Kevin), who became almost mythically popular as baby faces (good guys).  Watching YouTube videos of their matches, it's clear that the Von Erich brothers were The Beatles of their wrestling territory and - at one point in history - looked like they were going to dominate wrestling like no others had before.  

Then...multiple tragedies struck this family.

Fritz lost his first son when he was just 6 in 1959 due to a freak electrocution accident.  Then, 25 years later, his son David suddenly died from enteritis while on the road in Japan (he was just 25).  From this point, one child's death would nightmarishly taint this family after another.  Mike Von Erich - feeling unable to properly carry on the family name and legacy in the ring - committed suicide in 1987 after dealing with a horrible in-ring injury and subsequent brain damage (he was just 23).  Kerry Von Erich, who had arguably the most noteworthy success of all of his brothers (and even did a brief stint in the WWE in the early 90s) suffered from a dreadful motorcycle accident that led to his foot being amputated; he would later kill himself (he was 33).  The youngest brother of the clan, Chris, also committed suicide at 21 before older brother Kerry.  Fritz Von Erich died much later of cancer in the late 90s, but his only living son was Kevin, who went from having four brothers when they were all at their wrestling peak to having no brothers within a decade.    

Five brothers dead.  One by accident.  One due to an undiagnosed medical condition.  Three due to suicide.  

Let that all settle in for a bit.  

THE IRON CLAW is less about pro-wrestling than it is about an unspeakable tragedy - on multiple levels - that gripped this American heartland family.  I've seen some describe the Von Erichs as the Kennedys of wrestling, which seems apt.  Durkin aims to tell their story - in a somewhat abridged manner that plays reasonable fast and loose with historical details - in terms of the family's meteoric climb in wrestling and all the excesses of the era in question.  Beyond that, THE IRON CLAW also serves as a sobering and cautionary tale about the pratfalls of success, the trials and tribulations of brotherhood, the unhealthy influence of a toxically demanding father figure that lives vicariously through his kids, and the taxing weight of unreasonable  expectations.  Durkin's passion for this material shines through in every meticulously observed scene, but what really stuck with me here was how the wars outside the ring involving tense family dynamics slowly destroyed these men.  It might be one of the most profoundly heartbreaking films that I've seen in many a moon.  If THE IRON CLAW was not inspired by a true story and real family, then it would have been awfully hard to swallow.  But the Von Erichs did exist, five of these kids died under traumatizing circumstances, and only one lone brother has survived to the present day.   

But, undeniably, The Von Erichs - before all the senseless deaths - were the first family of Lone Star wrestling in the 70s and 80s.  In a well established prologue, we're introduced to Fritz (Holy McCallany) as a hard-working and constantly on the road pro-wrestler who's trying to provide for his wife, Doris (Maura Tierney), and young sons.  Realizing that he'll probably never attain world championship glory, Fritz aims to retire and settle down into promoter duties (and eventual president) of the Dallas-based World Championship Wrestling.  First, Fritz coaxed Kevin into the business, who emerged as an overnight natural.  Next came the much taller and lumbering, but equally skilled David (Harris Dickinson), who became a tag partner with Kevin and attained mass popularity.  Their youngest brother, Kerry (Jeremy Allen White), was a prestigious Olympic ready athlete who had his dreams cut short when the U.S. decided to boycott the games in 1980.  At the urging of his papa, Kerry soon joined Kevin and Mike in the squared circle.  Even though these brothers managed to quickly achieve a level of superstardom that Fritz never had in the past as a wrestler, this father nevertheless calls every shot for his family on every level, oftentimes to his sons' collective chagrin. 

The closest thing to a main character in THE IRON CLAW is Kevin, who certainly was tailored right from the very beginning in the late 70s to be the world champion that his dad never was.  As time would go on and setbacks ensued, Fritz shifted the pecking order and honed in on Mike being setup for the limelight over Kevin.  One of the overriding arcs of THE IRON CLAW is how Fritz exuded a cruel grip on molding his own sons and their futures.  In one telling and difficult to watch scene, Fritz matter-of-factly informs all of his sons at the dinner table that he ranks his kids by level of favoritism.  He likes Kerry first...then Kevin...then David...and then Mike (Stanley Simmons), the latter of whom has next to zero athletic desires and only wants to make music.  Fritz also notes that his rankings could change based on performance.  Unfortunately for Kevin, he ends up losing ground after many years of his dad coaxing him on.  At one point, Kevin injures himself in a pivotal match, but Fritz seems less worried about his son's physical well-being than he is about him looking weak to stronger opponents and the fans in attendance.

It's clear that Fritz's whole life is dominated by his own bitterness of what didn't happen in his own career, and he's hell-bent on getting his sons "over" no matter what the psychological cost.  It should be noted that Durkin never outwardly portrays this man as a one-note villain with detached emotions and a zealot-like drive to prop up and punish his sons in equal measure.  He's more of a tormented soul whose failures as a wrestler manifested in how he parented his kids later, which ultimately would have devastating affects on the entire family.  McCallany is terrific as this larger-than-life taskmaster manipulator who has no qualms about pitting his boys against one another if it means wrestling glory (it should be noted that the film takes its name from Fritz's signature move of clamping his large hand over an opponent's head and squeezing it so tight that they tap out and surrender).  Fritz was a power broker in the ring and at home with his kids, and even when one dies after another he refuses to let one tear shed, because that would show weakness.  He also demands that his surviving sons don't cry at the funerals themselves, regardless of they feel about processing their own grief.    

Kevin manages to find some form of release from his day-to-day family grind in his relationship with Pam (a wonderful Lily James), a fan who confronts the befuddled wrestler after a match one night and all but demands that he asks her out on a date.  Through the years, the pair become an inseparable item and later marry.  Pam becomes Kevin's support network and crutch, especially when he starts to mournfully buy into the hype that the Von Erichs are cursed when his brothers repeatedly die.  Efron and James have such a nice and unforced chemistry in the film that helps make their union feel more authentically realized.  But the biggest standout in THE IRON CLAW is Efron himself, an actor that I've not been too kind to over the years because of his films and role choices, but here he goes full deep dive method immersion to play Kevin, which included serious bulking up to plausibly look the part (Efron has always been a fit actor, but here he's ridiculously huge and cut).  Aside from his remarkable physical transformation, Efron brings a haunting melancholy to Kevin and portrays this man as someone that has frankly been through so much dread in his young adult life that it's a miracle that he didn't end up six feet under as well.  It's not the kind of showy and boisterous performance that usually attracts Oscar voters; it's more compellingly serene and understated.  Kevin Von Erich was a killer in the ring and had a super hero stature as an Adonis carved gladiator, but outside of it he could be hurt in more ways than one, and Efron effortlessly displays this hulking brute's tender side and vulnerability. He has never been better in a film.

Wrestling fans will also appreciate Durkin's evocation of a specific time and place in Dallas's distant past when Fritz's company was arguably bigger than the Dallas Cowboys in terms of fan worship.  The recreation of the iconic (and long since torn down) Sportatorium with its weekly legion of screaming fans is thanklessly painstaking here (the Von Erichs were rock gods in this building, no question).  There are also many sly moments in THE IRON CLAW that pulls the veil off of "Kayfabe" (presenting staged wrestling and its rivalries as 100% real) and shows the planning and orchestration of winning crowds over.  This is hardly revelatory ground for any modern wrestling film (Kayfabe was squashed years ago), but it's a nice touch in Durkin's film that he pays both a reverence for wrestling while understanding the physical rigors of what goes into it (it's a fake sport, yes, but these wrestlers often sport real injuries and put their bodies on the line for entertainment).  The way that THE IRON CLAW builds up the phony world of wrestling from the inside out and crafts such atmospheric and period-specific detail is to its credit.  For the most part, the film has an impressive immediacy that made me feel whisked away to another time and place.  

Ultimately, it wasn't the wrestling that resonated with me while watching this film.  No, it was the level of collateral damage caused by it on this family that became the most gripping element here.  So many sports pictures aim to build up to the big proverbial match or game at the film's climax, but THE IRON CLAW really offers none of that.  The Von Erichs don't have time to celebrate their euphoric successes because they're dealing with the never-ending pain of losing one family member after another.   Again, it's almost too incredible to believe, but everything that happened in this film, for the most part, did occur.  Durkin opted to omit - to much controversy - Chris Von Erich from the film, citing that portraying three brothers commit suicide might have been too mentally punishing for viewers.  He might have a point.  It's truly stunning how much suffering this family went through and all in the span of less than a decade, and much of THE IRON CLAW will be a very difficult watch for many.  Were the Von Erichs cursed?  I don't think so.  But this family was so unlucky in life, and it was so bloody unfair.  The fact that the Von Erich brothers had such an unwavering love for one another - which is shown so beautifully in the story - makes the film all the more of a potent dramatic gut punch.

But THE IRON CLAW also shows light at the end of a decidedly dark tunnel.  The film is also a remarkable inspirational tale of survival.  Kevin lived on, stayed with Pam, had kids, and those kids had their own kids.  He lives in Hawaii with his family in the present day and has attained peace.  That seems far away from Dallas and the old Sportatorium, but maybe that was intentional.  Kevin needed to walk away from the place that caused him so much hurt.  The only way he would win in life is to quit the life altogether.  When he weeps to his children about no longer being a brother, it cuts hard and deep.  I can't fathom what this man must have gone through and where he had to go to attain some semblance of normalcy away from the spotlight.  But he soldiered on and his sons became his new brothers.  Perhaps that's the most important - and deeply moving - part of THE IRON CLAW.  

Bring plenty of Kleenex to this one.