The Iron Claw, 2023

Professional wrestling has always been one of the fascinating programs on television, as it mixes storytelling with astonishing physical abilities and larger-than-life characters and presents them to different audiences. But every once in a while, we meet wrestlers who strive to go beyond the limits of the squared circle, some have ventured onto the big screen, like Dwayne Johnson, who goes by the nickname “The Rock”, John Cena, Dave Bautista, and others. Several films that revolve around wrestling were made to explore what goes on behind the scenes, such as Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler. In 2023, Sean Durkin directed The Iron Claw, a film that tells the story of the Von Erich family, who are legends in professional wrestling. The film stars Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson, and Holt McCallaney. In this review, we shall take a deeper look at this film and see if there is more to this film than its tragic tale.

Themes:

The film tackles three themes, the first is family and brotherhood. Throughout the film, we can see how close the Von Erichs are as a family. They are portrayed as a strong, Christian, family who love and care for each other. They can be seen as a template of the ideal Texan family. It also shows the struggle within each family member, Kevin with his life as an up-and-coming wrestler, Kerry with his Olympic ambitions, Mike with his music career, and Fritz with his desire to bring the world championship to the family. As time passes, new cracks appear in their relationships and cause tension between them. By the beginning of the second act, the theme is then centered around Kevin and shows how he values his family and tries his best to keep his love for them intact. One of the scenes that shows this beautifully is in the second act, where Fritz chooses David to fight the champion instead of Kevin. And instead of carrying any hatred or ill will, Kevin decides to show support to his brother and family. This formula repeats itself throughout the first and second acts and despite the repetitive nature of this formula, it manages to be beautiful each time and still solidifies Kevin’s love. The film also shows Mike's struggle to find his place in a family who all follow the same ambitions, but are different from his. Stanley Simmons played his role to perfection, as he showed Mike’s inability to be part of the Von Erichs legacy and slowly losing the will to live and finally vomiting suicide.

The second theme is ambition. This theme is shown mainly in Fritz Von Erich as we see that desperately desires to bring the world championship to his family. The film also shows the price that comes with ambition, as Fritz’s chase for the title is the catalyst that will create tensions between the brothers as they do their best to make him proud. Holt McCallney’s work with Fritz is to be praised by his work in this film, despite his character being written mostly showing one or two emotions he managed to bring layers to these emotions and show the anger and frustration that the character carries. A scene that shows these layers is after the passing of David in the second act, Fritz expresses how important the world championship is to the family, while also showing signs of sadness about his son’s passing.

The last theme that the film tackled is loss. The story of the Von Erichs is a tragic one, as three of the four brothers pass away throughout the film. The film shows how each one reacts to each of the deaths, each reaction is more painful than the last, Doris by refusing to wear the same dress, and Fritz by continuing his quest for the title. One of the things that I love about how this theme is handled, is Kevin slowly losing the will to follow his wrestling career and trying his best to keep his sanity intact, as with each death his sadness drives him to the edge. This is solidified not only by Zac Effron’s superb acting but also by the fantastic way the film and characters are written.

About the film:

Artistically, the film is excellently made. The filter used gives the film a unique look and feel, the lighting is perfectly balanced as well, not too dark but also not too bright. The setting gives the film the exact look of the period that it wants to portray. Everything from the house to the farm, the office and rings that were used, and even the television introduction of the wrestling show feel authentic. The film is filled with remarkable camera work, from the first scene to the last. There is no shortage of memorable scenes, you are bound to come up with at least one or two favorite scenes. But if I have to nitpick, I would say that at the beginning of the film they started with black and white and then immediately switched to color. The only reason I could think of as to why this was done, is to quickly attract the viewer's attention. Despite how strange this idea is, it worked. As I was inverted in the story immediately after the first scene. The soundtrack is also wonderful.

The film shows the tragic tale of the Von Erichs excellently from every angle and in every scene. Every dialogue is filled with all emotions possible, from happiness to sadness, from excitement to desperation. The writing, directing, and acting are top-notch. All the actors brought the tragedy to life, from Effron’s struggle to keep his family, Maura Tierney’s slow loss of life, Jeremy Allien White's anger and frustration, and finally Mccallany’s continuous stubbornness. The film also builds two confrontations, one between Kevin and his brother and another with his father. The build-up to these confrontations was very good, and the confrontation with the father was also enjoyable and heartbreaking despite being short. But the confrontation between Kevin and Kerry felt lacking, and I wished we saw a longer version of the confrontation.

One of the things that I enjoy about the film’s writing, is that it uses “The Curse of the Von Erich” as a narrative tool to tell its story and show the tragedy of the family. From its introduction at the end of the first act until the end of the film, this curse is used to neatly tie all the tragedies together, it is also used to show Kevin’s slow downfall into madness as he keeps thinking about how the curse might affect his wife and children, to the point where he changes his child last name to Adkisson to avoid it. By the time the third act ends, the curse disappears but its purpose is fulfilled, to see the tragic life of Kevin and his family. 

The film also shows what goes on behind the scenes in the business of pro wrestling. We see how the promos are done and how the discussions on who faces the champion are done. Although it doesn't show this as detailed as The Wrestler, it still does a good job and manages to balance it with the center points of the film. It also shows how difficult the life of a wrestler is, from having to travel on the road and wrestle in different places, and shows how some wrestlers need to rely on drugs to keep up with this line of work. The film uses the Von Erichs in these scenes to keep the flow of the story going, as we see Kerry using a needle before the start of a match, a nice touch by the writers and directors to keep the flow of the story organized. The wrestling is also fantastic, Chavo Guerrero Jr was the organizer and instructor of the wrestling aspect in the film and he did an excellent job in making the film feel more authentic, it has the second-best wrestling sequences next to only The Wrestler. Lastly, the film shows some aspects of wrestling history, from the rise and fall of World Class Championship Wrestling, the promotion owned by the Von Erichs, the hold that the National Wrestling Alliance had on the world championship, and the rise of the World Wrestling Federation. 

The Iron Claw vs The Wrestler:

While many things link The Iron Claw and The Wrestler together, such as showing the inside and outside of the business, the struggle that wrestlers have while on the road, and the struggle with drug addiction, the two films are entirely different. 

The Wrestler is a fictional tale of Randy “The Ram” Robinson, who struggles with how his life has no purpose after his wrestling career ends and chooses to risk his life following his past glory. His tale is a representation of how many wrestlers feel, and it did that brilliantly.

The Iron Claw is the tale of the Von Erich family, a family who while trying their best to remain strong, fell to tragedy. Wrestling was part of their life and legacy. While some can relate to them, and know their feeling, the film is centered around them only. Randy Robenson on the other hand is a metaphor that represents any and almost all the wrestlers that suffered the same fate.

Final Verdict: 

The Iron Claw is one of the best films that came out in 2023, and it is one of the best films to come about wrestling. It is proof that films about wrestling are not one-hit wonders and can be fantastic pieces of cinema. The acting, directing, and writing are superb, the setting is fantastic, and the wrestling is fantastic. This film is definitely worth watching more than once. I give The Iron Claw a 4 out of 5.