The Iron Claw Movie Review
The Iron Claw is a touching slice of 80s Americana that will make you cry regardless of your stance on wrestling. Zac Efron’s performance is Oscar worthy but does The Iron Claw do the family justice?
The Iron Claw is written and directed by Sean Durkin and tells the story of The Von Erich family and their dramatic story. This movie is about family. The Iron Claw does an amazing job of showing the sweet relationships between the brothers. The Iron Claw has the best wrestling scenes you’ll see in any movie to date, but this is not a wrestling movie. This movie is a Greek tragedy in wrestling boots.
So this movie focuses on Kevin Von Erich played by Zac Efron and I think this is the best performance of his career. Zac Efron portrayed the quiet sweetness of Kevin Von Erich and did an incredible job of transforming his body and performing in the ring. Now if you’re not familiar with The Von Erich family, they were wrestling royalty in the 80s and they were literal rock stars in Texas. The movie tells the story from the eyes of Kevin Von Erich and how he navigated the tragedy that unfolded around him. I wish they spent more time in the ring, the wrestling scenes were used to move the story forward and they did an amazing job highlighting some of the Von Erich’s most popular matches and opponents. If you’re familiar with the story you’ll definitely recognize some of their opponents.
The movie does a great job of showing the Von Erich family dynamic, specifically the domineering patriarch Fritz Von Erich (played by Holt McCallany) and how he pushed his kids into the family business. Despite Fritz’s domineering approach with his kids Holt McCallany was able to convey how much Fritz cared for his kids. You know that he means well, but wrestling was the family business and that was the only thing he knew so he pushed the boys into the business one at a time.
As the Von Erich brothers David, Kevin, and Kerry become superstars in the movie you see that they still seek the approval of their father Fritz and continue to look to him for guidance and direction. On that note, you want to look at Fritz as the villain of this movie, but Holt’s performance shows that Fritz does deeply care about his boys and just pushes too hard. Eventually the tragedy train comes screaming into the station and the impact of loss starts to take its toll on the family. This is a heavy family drama, it does have some sweet and funny moments, but let’s be clear. This is a tragic family story.
But ultimately this is a story of survival because of love and family. And finding your emotional voice, which is something that I’ve never really thought about until now. Sean Durkin did an amazing job telling The Von Erich Story as well as it could be told in a 2 hour movie. This movie could have been much darker, Sean decided to exclude the story of Chris Von Erch to spare the audience another tragedy which would have pushed the audience too far. Chris was the youngest Von Erich and had a very short wrestling career, he was too small and his body couldn’t handle the in ring work. Sean is a fan of 80s wrestling and is intimately aware of the family story, I know it had to be hard to leave Chris out of the story. From a story perspective, I think it makes sense. The true story of the Von Erich family is shockingly tragic and would have been truly too much loss for one movie. You should definitely dive into the true story after this movie and learn more about the family.
When I heard about this movie a year ago, I was super skeptical. I grew up in the shadow of the Dallas Sportatorium and met Kerry Von Erich when I was 8 years old across the street from the world famous Texas Theater. Seeing Kerry set me on a path to become a weightlifter, Kerry inspired me to be a strongman. I’m so happy that their story is being shared with a larger audience. I highly recommend The Iron Claw, but be prepared for an emotional ride. Especially if you’re an 80s kid from Texas who watched World Class Championship Wrestling on channel 11 and 39. Seeing the Dallas Sportatorium resurrected in this movie was breathtaking. The camera shots used for the wrestling scenes were similar angles that the World Class Championship Wrestling Org pioneered and it really takes you back to the glory days of territorial wrestling.
Let me know what you think of this movie! Especially if you’re local to Texas and experienced the Von Erich story back in the 80s. Did this movie do the family justice?