The Iron Claw (2023 film)

Category: Biographical Drama

Directed by: Sean Durkin

-----

Movies based on professional wrestling have been few and far between. From memory, there has been The Wrestler from back in the 2000s by Darren Aranovsky, and also Ready To Rumble (the movie that helped kill WCW) though there have been a couple of mini-series here and there, as well as documentaries like You Cannot Kill David Arquette and the Dark Side Of The Ring series.

Now, being a pro wrestling nut myself, I have always been keen to watch this movie, but wanted to avoid the hype and watch it in my own time and at my own pace. Which is something I regret - this movie is easily Best In Class!

To explain the plot, I will need to explain and expand on some wrestling terms as I go along. Here we go - The Iron Claw.

The plot:

The Iron Claw is the (mostly true) story of the Von Erich family and comes from the name of the finishing move used by Fritz Von Erich and his sons throughout their professional wrestling careers. In professional wrestling, a finishing move is the move that a wrestler performs that either causes the opponent to submit or incapacitates them to be pinned for a three-count - thus finishing the match. So in this case, The Iron Claw was when Von Erich would place his fingers around the top of your skull and squeeze, either causing you to submit or for you to forget your shoulders are on the mat for a three count.

Who is Fritz Von Erich? Fritz Von Erich, whose birth name was Jack Adkisson, is the patriarch of the Von Erich wrestling family and owner of World Class Championship Wrestling, a small and popular wrestling promotion run out of Dallas, Texas. 

Who are the Von Erich family? They are Fritz, his wife Doris, and their six sons Jack Jr (who died as a child in an accident), Kevin, David, Kerry, Michael and Chris who all became professional wrestlers. However, in this movie, the roles of Michael and Chris are amalgamated into Michael's character.

And why the name Von Erich? The movie doesn't go in to this, but when Jack Adkisson started wrestling in the 1950s, he was given an evil Prussian Nazi gimmick (or character) to portray alongside his fictional brother Waldo Von Erich (played by a Canadian whose real name was Walter Sieber) and someone decided the surname Von Erich was appropriately German enough to carry a Nazi gimmick, despite neither Adkisson nor Sieber having any immediate connection to Nazism or Germany. No, professional wrestling doesn't always make sense. Thankfully, Fritz eventually became a face (a good guy), then retired from the ring to run WCCW and raise a large family.

So to me, there's a delicious irony in a guy who once pretended to be a Nazi moving to the most yee-haw state in America and raising an all-American family!

Anyway, the movie starts off proper in black and white with Fritz (Holt McCallany) in the ring as he wins his match against an unnamed opponent to cheers from the crowd, then sitting in the locker room, and then walking out of the stadium to greet his pregnant wife and two sons. Unbeknownst to his wife, Doris (Maura Tierney), Fritz has gone and traded the family car in for a Cadillac with the justification that Fritz has to start looking like a wrestling star in order to be treated like one in order to reach the heights of his profession. Doris, however, doesn't share the same enthusiasm (especially given the family's financial situation) and she starts breaking out in prayer. Fritz states his determination to make sure the family doesn't face financial hardship or suffering again.

Cut to the current day (the 1980s) and we see Kevin Von Erich (an incredibly buff Zac Efron) try wake up his brother David (Harris Dickinson) to go for a run first thing in the morning on the family acreage and work out. The accompanying voiceover from Kevin explains that he believes his family, despite being accomplished and athletic, are under some sort of curse due to the nature of the tragedies that have befallen them over the years. However, they also follow their father's mantra that if they are the toughest and strongest, nothing will ever hurt them. 

We then see Kevin Von Erich in the wrestling ring against The Sheik (portrayed by the legendary Chavo Guerrero) where he wins and is awarded the Texas Heavyweight Championship, after which he is given a pep talk by his father to keep working even harder. This is followed by a scene the next day at family breakfast where Fritz belittles Michael (Stanley Simons) for not being strong or athletic like the other brothers. Mike is seen to be the runt of the family, however it turns out that his thing in life is music as we see him playing in a garage rock band.

At a TV taping for WCCW, Kevin struggles with cutting a promo and is mocked by David, which Kevin takes to heart because Kevin is the oldest of the sons and feels the pressure (especially from Fritz) to excel at his craft both in and out of the ring. In wrestling terms, cutting a promo (short for promotional segment) is when a wrestler speaks (either to camera or to the audience) to generate excitement for an upcoming match and/or to reference events that have just happened. Being able to cut promos is very important in the entertainment aspect of professional wrestling, as it is one of the main avenues for audiences to connect with the characters they see.

Kevin and David wrestle and win their match as Fritz looks on, then as the Von Erich boys are outside with the fans, Kevin is approached by an attractive woman named Pam (Lily James) and they agree to go on a date. At the date, Kevin explains that he believes the family is cursed as a result of Fritz officially changing the family surname to Von Erich.

(Though the movie doesn't go in to why, something like changing your legal name would happen due to a concept called kayfabe, pronounced "kay fayb". Kayfabe is notion that the action in the ring is real and that the wrestlers we see ARE the characters they play, in an out of the ring. In this modern age, kayfabe is as good as dead, but back in the good old days, it was a wrestler's job to protect the business - El Santo never took his mask off when in public except one time right before he passed, Nancy Sullivan travelled with Chris Benoit while still being married to Kevin Sullivan because Benoit and Nancy Sullivan were having a storyline affair, and The Undertaker drove around with Paul Bearer in a hearse. These are all examples of wrestlers keeping up the appearance of their character in public away from the ring.

So Jack Adkisson changing the family's legal name to Von Erich helps keep up the appearance that Fritz Von Erich is actually Fritz Von Erich - because it would be weird when the postman sees Fritz Von Erich in front of him, but hands over mail addressed to Jack Adkisson).

Interspersed among the wrestling action and family drama, we see Fritz running WCCW from behind his desk, counting money and discussing business operations. One of the names that pops up throughout is the NWA, or National Wrestling Alliance. The NWA was a collection of wrestling promotions that controlled and dictated how professional wrestling was run in North America, up to and including who would be world champion, who the world champion would perform with and where the world champion would perform in any given period. If a promotion could get the NWA champion to perform for their promotion - or even if one of their wrestlers became NWA champion - it was guaranteed money.

Fritz sits Kevin down in the loungeroom and tells him that he will be facing Harley Race, the NWA champion, in a non-title bout - but that if he puts in a good enough performance, the NWA might let him challenge for the championship. This is in part because it was Fritz' unfulfilled dream to become NWA Heavyweight champion himself, but also because Fritz sees himself and his promotion being worked against by others in the NWA. In the actual match between Von Erich and Race, we see the contest going back and forth when the fighting starts taking place outside of the ring. Race performs a move on Kevin where Kevin lands on his back on the concrete floor and Kevin is temporarily incapacitated. Kevin manages to get back in to the ring and eventually win by disqualification, meaning that Kevin should be given a chance to compete for the championship at a later date. 

(From a wrestling perspective, the importance of this is that Race has allowed himself to be defeated, but via disqualification - meaning that he wasn't outperformed or outwrestled. In a way, it's actually a compliment to Kevin because Race could have legitimately outwrestled Kevin to defeat him in front of his home crowd, a distinct possibility given Harley Race's reputation for being one tough son of a bitch, but he instead allowed himself to lose in a manner that keeps his own reputation intact).

After the match as Harley Race goes back to the backstage area, Kevin tries to cut a promo, but it's clear that speaking in to a mic is something he struggles with. David, however, is a lot more talented at putting the words and feelings together. Backstage, Fritz walks in on his two sons and chastises Kevin for taking too long getting up after being slammed on to the concrete floor, but praises David for his microphone abilities.

The next scene shows Kerry Von Erich (Jeremy Allen) training for discus at his university in preparation for the upcoming 1980 Moscow Olympics, but his Olympic dreams are dashed as the US President announces that the US will be boycotting the Olympics over the USSR's invasion of Afghanistan. This gives Fritz the opportunity to encourage Kerry to start training for professional wrestling.

Kerry soon joins the family business, the family profile grows, WCCW (but Fritz as well) are making a lot of money, the three brothers defeat The Fabulous Freebirds (one of the most famous groups in professional wrestling) to become the 6-man tag team champions. After the match and with the crowd still excited, Fritz cuts an unscripted promo in the ring publicly challenging the NWA and declaring that David is going to be the next NWA champion, which surprises the ring announcer (who is also involved in the running of the business behind the scenes). 

This causes tension between David and Kevin as Kevin is the oldest and saw himself as "next in line" especially after he was the one who defeated Harley Race, but Fritz and the NWA want to promote David by sending him to work in the other territories and Japan before competing against Ric Flair for the NWA title.

Kevin and Pam get married, and at the reception, Kevin finds David hunched over a toilet and vomiting out blood. David downplays it as a stomach bug he picked up while on the road and Kevin implores him to not proceed with his planned tour of Japan. In the next scene, we find out that David was found dead in his hotel room in Japan as the result of a ruptured intestine.

Soon after this, the Von Erich's family dream comes true as Kerry (chosen by Fritz to carry on David's mission) beats Ric Flair to win the NWA Heavyweight championship. Unfortunately, a drunk Kerry decides that a late-night motorcycle ride is a good idea and he gets into an accident that necessitates the amputation of his foot. Thankfully, Kerry's amputation was just above the ankle, allowing him to hide his missing foot under his wrestling boots, though he initially struggles with the pain of putting weight on the leg as he has come back to training too early.

Michael becomes a professional wrestler in his own right, despite being the leanest of the Von Erich boys. Unfortunately, his career is cut short by a shoulder injury sustained during a match, then complications during the subsequent surgery cause him to go into a coma. Thankfully he recovers, but never steps into the ring again as he has sustained a brain injury that affects his speech and motor skills and leads him down a depressive path. Unfortunately, Michael's depression gets the better of him and he is found dead by a lake after overdosing on sleeping pills and alcohol.

Kevin struggles with idea of the Von Erich curse and falls into his own depression. We see that when he and Pam go to register the birth of their child, Kevin decides the child's last name will be Adkisson (the original family name), Kevin being absent while his wife needs him to look after their newborn child, and Kevin feeling less and less valuable as an in-ring performer. This leads Kevin to stay away from the family home and instead sleep at the Sportatorium to focus on training, as well as wanting his son to not catch the Von Erich curse.

Kevin's sacrifice pays off as he gets a match for the NWA World Heavyweight title against Ric Flair in his home state of Texas. However, Kevin's demons get the better of him as he shoots on Flair (shoot in this context means to go off-script) as we see Kevin lay a heavy kick to the head of Ric Flair (rather than a worked kick that looks dangerous, but is ultimately safe) and then he ignores the referee's instruction to let go of the Iron Claw submission hold, thus getting himself disqualified and requiring Fritz to come in and get Kevin off of a prone Flair.

Backstage, Kevin struggles to explain to Fritz and Kerry why he did what he did, however Flair himself has no problem and congratulates Kevin on showing toughness. This causes Kevin to turn things around and to be present in the lives of his wife and children.

Fritz has retired from running WCCW and has handed it over to Kevin, but WCCW is suffering due to the absence of Kerry who has taken up an offer from the World Wrestling Federation (the biggest promotion in America). Kevin tells Fritz about an offer from a rival promoter to buy WCCW, which he is considering given that he needs to support his growing family. Fritz responds by threatening to disown Kevin if he sells the business, and things get even more tense when Kevin realises that Fritz has been underpaying him for years. But in good news, Kerry seems to achieving a level of success in WWF and is home for Christmas where he gives his Fritz a handgun as a Christmas present. Unfortunately, the smiles are just for show as Kerry calls up Kevin in the middle of the night and tells him he can't handle being deformed and cursed. Kevin calls up Fritz to organise some assistance for Kerry, but Fritz spits back that the boys need to "work it out between yourselves". Kevin drives over to Fritz' place just in time to hear a gunshot and find Kerry lying on the ground, motionless. Kevin then attacks Fritz and accuses him of not taking care of Kerry.

We then see Kerry meet up with his brothers, including a 7-year old Jack Jr, in the afterlife as Kevin mourns over Kerry's lifeless body.

In the final scene of the movie, Kevin sits on the lawn of his house, in tears as he comes to grips with knowing he has no brothers left.

----

This was a great movie, despite its subject matter. A tick over two hours, but barely felt that long.

Some opinions first as a wrestling fan:

Just like with all based-on-a-true-story movies, not all of the details are accurate, nor are they in order. The first thing to note (as well as re-iterate) is that Chris Von Erich was left out of the movie and some of the details of his life merged with Michael. Also, Michael was already a professional wrestler prior to Kerry's death - Kerry's death wasn't the imprimatur for his in-ring career.

For me, a lot of the events in this movie took place before I understood and appreciated the art of professional wrestling, so to me, this is telling me a history I had no experience of (save for Kerry Von Erich's stint in WWF as Texas Tornado).

The characterisations of some of the famous names were quite good - Harley Race (Kevin Anton) and Bruiser Brody (Cazzey Cereghino) in particular. Aaron Dean Eisenberg as Ric Flair, however, didn't quite hit. Ric Flair has a particular manner that is very hard to replicate, to the point that only one person has ever successfully pulled it off...Jay Lethal!

The wrestling choreography was great, and credit to the legendary Chavo Guerrero for this. As a counterpoint, I remember watching the movie Wimbledon and thought the sporting action looked hokey. But here, everything looked like proper wrestling matches - maybe because wrestling is itself heavily choreographed to the point that staging a fake fight to look like a real fight that is actually staged isn't unnatural. 

I also have to say that this is one of the very few movies, especially big-name movies, that seems to have no CGI. I could not think of one computer-generated effect. Seems weird when you think about it, but that's also a credit to the storytelling that it was powerful without the need for effects!

There are quite a few points I picked up that I want to elaborate on. In no specific order:

The family dynamic - despite being family, neither Fritz nor Doris are very nurturing towards their children. We see this in the scenes involving the deaths of the children where Fritz commands his sons to not wear sunglassees or cry, or where Kevin calls Fritz to ask him to help with Kerry, but is told that it's a matter between the sons.

Fritz living vicariously through his sons, especially Kevin and Kerry. Kevin was going to be one to live Fritz's dream - then it became David - then one of the boys had to take David's place - and then he once he achieved his dad's goal, he seemed to have a hard time dealing with it. 

The Von Erichs were human. They were locally famous and known outside of the wrestling ring - this was wrestling back in day when wrestlers were rarely the bigger-than-life superstars we are presented with nowadays (save for a few exceptions), and further to that, you lived your gimmick.

But one thing I do want to discuss that this movie highlights - wrestling is a brutal industry. While the outcomes of the matches are predetermined and the moves are performed with the co-operation of those involved, this does not make professional wrestling any less a meat grinder of an enterprise, especially when you consider the fact that the promoters/owners of the individual companies were not above shortchanging the talent so they could get rich off of other people's bodies. It's not the promoter travelling hundreds of days a year, doing live performances in front of paying crowds in multiple towns and then also doing TV tapings - it was the wrestlers doing that. Your job as a wrestler was to make money for the promoter by following the script, entertaining those crowds and putting on a show, and if you got hurt, your earning potential and your rank inside the promotion went down.

In fact, this is why we see interspersed shots of the various Von Erich sons taking medication, be it pills or injectables, as well as why Kerry is rushing to get back in to training. Wrestlers have to manage injuries and pain, keep up their income and also keep up their spot in the promotion. 

The last thing to note about this movie is that given we already know the story of tragedy that the family has, it's hard to get excited when you see something positive happen because you know you'll be punched in the gut at some stage afterwards. At least the first tragedy doesn't happen until an hour in!

But I would definitely recommend this movie - hopefully my little explainer has helped make things easier to understand, but if you have a couple of hours free and some tissues, you won't be disappointed!

STAR RATING: 4.5/5