The Iron Claw
Synopsis: A family of professional wrestlers experience triumph and tragedy. Based on a true story. (Streaming on Max)
Imagine tennis matches scripted for your entertainment. First off, the players would have personas and themed costumes. Fans might be cheering on a genial hillbilly or jeering a snobby rich guy. For the actual matches, there would be rules, but those rules would be disregarded. Racquets will be flung, taunts hurled, and players will shove each other. Perhaps an umpire’s stilt-legged chair would be shaken in anger over a disputed call. Doubles matches would be double the action. Players jumping over nets to chase their opponents into the stands. And the crowds will roar their approval.
Ridiculous? Of course, but this is sort of what “pro wrestling” is in contrast to what we see at the Summer Olympics: Greco-Roman wrestling. In the former, matches are scripted to look no-holds barred. In the latter, wrestlers grapple one-on-one until someone wins by pinning their opponent. No one behind the scenes is pre-determining a winner. And they all wear the same unflattering singlets.
The Iron Claw is based on the true story of the Von Erichs, pro wrestling royalty. In the late seventies and into the eighties, several brothers were coached and managed by their dad, “Fritz Von Erich”(Holt Callany). He adopted the moniker years earlier when he was a pro wrestler. His villain character was a pro-Nazi German. I don’t know if there are any comparables today, like an invasion-mad Russian.
In an opening black & white sequence, we see Fritz fighting his heart out in a match. It must be tough, because the guy looks at least fifty years old. After the match, he tells his heavily pregnant wife, Doris (Maura Tierney) and their two young sons that he’s going to be the biggest thing wrestling has ever seen. Uh, that ship may have sailed.
Fast forward to 1979 and color film. One of the young sons has grown up to be Zac Efron aka Kevin Von Erich. We see him in the ring, fighting before a hometown Texas crowd. Poor Zac endures eye gouges, airplane spins ending in throws onto the mat, cobra clutches and body avalanches before he employs the Iron Claw (a temple-crushing move invented by his dad) and wins the match. It seems that the matches follow a basic choreography, but I don’t know if the outcome is always a fait accompli.
Zac’s voiceover tells us that people says his family is cursed, trailed by unexpected deaths. Zac doesn’t believe in that. Like his dad, he believes in wrestling. His mom believes in God. I’m not sure how she feels about violent sports on Sunday; wrestling may be how they keep the Sabbath.
Okay, so when the real action took place, the brothers were in their twenties. Zac and another star, Jeremy Allen White of The Bear fame, who plays a younger brother of Zac’s. Both actors are in their mid-thirties, but you’ll just have to play along like in the beginning of the movie when the late-middle-aged actors playing the parents are supposed to be a young couple, just starting out.
Dad Fritz is either mercilessly training the sons or working his farm. The guys have been so brainwashed on wrestling-as-the-meaning-of-life that, during a big breakfast in the family home, the dad ranks his sons from most favorite to least favorite. He says they can always move up in the rankings. Based on how many matches they win, it seems.
The brothers have each other’s backs and work just as hard on publicity as they do on working out. I don’t know anything about pro wrestling, but Zac got in Incredible Hulk shape for this part. The Bear also got into great shape, but not as much as Zac. Zac’s bulging muscles are layered with more muscles, especially his abs, which should’ve had their own movie credit.
The wrestling choreography is pretty impressive. I don’t know how the real wrestlers’ bodies handle the abuse. In one scene, Zac gets thrown out of the ring and onto cement flooring. His dad later admonishes him for lying on the floor for too long after the unplanned throw. Thank heavens that no Zac or Zac stuntmen were hurt during filming, according to the Hollywood Human Humane Society.
Zac and his brothers; The Bear, David and Mike treat their father’s rules as law. He bitches to them about how he never got a shot at the championship. The poor guys! All they know is Texas and wrestling. Zac doesn’t even know that they are all living their dad’s dream. There are some things that bother him though, like how hard the dad is on Mike because he like to play in a band. There are more than a few times that Zac sadly gazes at a family member, and the camera moves in for a closeup of his sad-face acting.
By the way, because the actors are unrelated, none of them look alike. But the hair department fixes that by giving all of the brothers the same bangs. And their messy hair is sprayed into immovable masses. I mean, you don’t want your hair getting into your face when you are flying off the ropes, taking aim to land on your opponent’s head!
A bright spot for Zac! Bruised after a winning match, he meets a fan, Pam (Lily James of Mamma Mia 2). She maneuvers soft-spoken Zac into a date. All Lily James has to do in the movie is smile. Her character doesn’t exist outside of trying to win over Zac and make him happy. Geez… they couldn’t have one shot of her with some friends or at work? Nope.
At a wedding, Pam/Lily does get to dance in cowboy boots. Unfortunately, there are no Abba tunes, just a Virginia hillfolk country song that no self-respecting Texan would actually request. Speaking of which, this is another Texas-set story that is filmed in Louisiana thanks to tax breaks. Too bad because Texas and Texans are their own distinct thing.
The Iron Claw handles the real-life family with care. But, wow, it’s too long. Instead of individual scenes that stand out, it’s like a slow drive along a timeline of events. Nonetheless, the story is incredible. No spoilers, but Zac goes through a lot of loss. When the brothers are injured or having a mental health crisis, the parents ignore the problems.
Zac shoulders the family’s wrestling legacy at great personal cost. He relentlessly drives his body towards the championship. (I hoped he didn’t have to stay in this kind of shape for his next movie.) Pam tries to help him through a depression; her usual smile is replaced by a frown. Zac starts to believe that his family is cursed.
I kept hoping that Zac’s character would go to therapy for his sake and ours. Then we could hear some of his thoughts and feelings about father and his pre-determined road in life. Instead, we get long looks into the distance.
You’ll be tired by the end of the movie, but if you like sports movies and family dramas, The Iron Claw is the movie for you.
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