The Curse of ‘The Iron Claw’

From my pre-teen years to the cusp of the tenth grade, I was a die-hard wrestling fan. Hell, I was one of those goofs you meet in Junior High who thought it was real. As I reached my teens, I finally caught on. This “sport” was all stagecraft. And I left it behind the way one does with childish things.

The Iron Claw, a film about the true-life story of the Von Erich wrestling family, is not a childish thing. 

I was a couple years removed when the tragedies of the Von Erich family began to take place. So, while The Iron Claw’s promotion has left no doubt that the film tells a dark tale, I went in with an ignorance of just how dark their story is. It is as bleak as the most barren place on earth. 

So much so that the gifted Director Sean Durkin (Martha Marcy May Marlene and The Nest) actually had to cut an entire brother from the film because of both running time and a fear that viewers would not be able to believe what befell the Von Erichs.  The Iron Claw is very much about the love between four brothers, but also about an unhealthy fealty to a domineering father (Holt McCallany in a career-best performance). All my life I’ve never trusted a person on film or in real life whose adult children still call him “sir.” Fritz Von Erich (McCallany) is an ALL CAPS SIR. 

It’s not that Fritz doesn’t care about his boys, he does. It’s more that he’s so obsessed with living through them that he doesn’t care for them. You see, Fritz had always wanted to be the National Wrestling Association Heavyweight Champion of the world. But, due to politics or perhaps a personal lack of flair (champions are chosen in wrestling, they are not necessarily the product of greater talent and ability), Fritz never reached his goal. 

The film starts out in hazy black and white (reminiscent of Raging Bull) showing Fritz in the ring, “winning” his match with his fabled “iron claw” technique, which is essentially taking your hand, placing it on the skull of your opponent, and squeezing until they give out. Of course, it’s all an act, but McCallany is so large and formidable that it’s impossible not to believe that Fritz’s trademark caused no discomfort. 

We then flash forward several years to see an incredibly built-out Zac Efron in the ring as eldest son Kerry Von Erich. Efron gives the kind of performance here that will change your entire concept of him as an actor. If you see him as the light comedian of High School Musical and Neighbors, rest assured, you will never view him that way again. Laying down a Texas twang and bulging from head to toe, Efron sounds and looks every bit the part (he must have been on the same regimen as Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler). If you’ve seen the trailer for the film, you might believe that the never hotter Jeremy Allen White (as Kerry Von Erich) might be first among equals in this ensemble film. But as typically terrific as White, McCallany, and Maura Tierney (as very Christian wife of Fritz and mother of the boys) are, this film eventually belongs to Efron, and he has no trouble carrying the movie on his heavily-muscled shoulders. Hell, White doesn’t even enter the film until 36 minutes in.

As the eldest brother, Fritz has Kevin first in line to become the family’s inaugural NWA Heavyweight Champion, but when Kevin’s showmanship doesn’t match his athletic ability, his younger brother David (an excellent Harris Dickinson) leaps past him by the father’s choice. 

Kevin is later pushed aside again when after the first of many horrific events, Kerry steps over him to wrestle for the championship in Japan. One of the fascinating things you learn is how Kerry would have never been there at all had then President Jimmy Carter not boycotted the 1980 Olympic Games held in Moscow due to Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan. Kerry was on the discus team, and when he returns home, he joins the family business without so much as a question when Fritz tells him what he wants from him. “Yes, sir,” Kerry says. 

Kerry’s ring success is cut short after a terrible accident, the aftermath of which Durkin films with great patience, leading to a gobsmacking reveal. Now down to just one-able bodied son (Kevin), Fritz turns to there youngest boy, Michael (played by Stanley Simons with great empathy), a sensitive young man who would rather be writing and playing sweet-natured rock songs in a band then join his brother in the ring, but, as always, Fritz prevails. At least for a moment. 

Sadly (especially for the boys) moments were all Fritz and his sons would ever have. When Michael hurts his shoulder during a tag team match with Kevin, the operation seems simple enough. But nothing was ever simple for the Von Erichs, and complications during the procedure leads to another tragedy that is then compounded multi-fold.

The Iron Claw is a story that has to be based on actual events, because had anyone ever written it up as fiction, no one would believe it.  No matter how great the suffering of his sons (as well as that of his wife and daughter-in-law, played by the lovely Lily James), Fritz will not stop. He is the ultimate awful stage dad. 

Despite the extraordinary secession of calamities that come to the family, Fritz can only see his own needs. And let me be clear, this is an incredibly grim film. Durkin has been quoted as calling The Iron Claw, “the feel bad movie of the year.” Truth be told, I think he undersold the full impact of the film with those words. 

I’ve seldom seen a film as wrenching as this one. So why watch it one might ask? Well, because all art isn’t meant to make you feel good. Some art is meant to tell you a story that makes you understand character—both fictional and those based on real life. If the concept of the “cautionary tale” has meaning in your life, you will surely mine significant understanding from The Iron Claw on just how dark the depths of obsession can go. Throughout the film, there are consistent mentions of the “Von Erich curse,” and while I am not a man who believes in such things, I would not think anyone who saw The Iron Claw and came to the conclusion that curses are real to be a fool.

That’s not to say there is no redemption in the film. It would be excessive to call the ending of the film a happy one. But there is a survivor. And as that survivor watches two boys play in the front yard of a respectable home, well, your heart breaks in just the right way. 

That’s because the story of the Von Erichs has been delivered with an integrity that never lets you off the hook, but whatever positives can be taken from all of their suffering are extremely hard won. 

The wrestling may have been scripted, but the pain was all too real.