PicoBlog

9/10

In recent years I’ve become increasingly fascinated by professional wrestling as a form of theatrical entertainment, yet knew little about the Von Erich wrestling family. I purposely avoided reading about the Von Erichs prior to seeing The Iron Claw. All I knew was that the family was known for its tragic history. Finally seeing that history left me floored. The first comparison that came to mind was the biblical story of Job, in which Satan inflicts repeated calamities and injustices upon the godly Job to taste his faith. The Von Erichs, too, are characterized by strong religious faith yet experience a series of terrible tragedies. Even more remarkable is that the film actually downplays what happened in reality—omitting entirely youngest son Chris Von Erich, whose fate was at least as tragic as those of his brothers.

While I have mixed feelings about that omission, The Iron Claw remains one of the best films of 2023. Unfairly, the movie was snubbed in this year’s Oscar nominations—not the only worthy film this year to suffer such a fate. Spanning the 1970s to the 1990s, the film details the story of the Von Erichs: brothers Kevin (Zac Efron), Kerry (Jeremy Allen White), David (Harris Dickinson), and Mike (Stanley Simons), and parents Fritz (Holt McCallany) and Doris (Maura Tierney). Patriarch Fritz von Erich, owner of the World Class Championship Wrestling league, is arguably the driving force of the film.

The opening scene depicts Fritz’s own wrestling days in the 1950s. Despite portraying a villainous “heel” in the ring, Fritz appears the very model of a loving father, who promises his family he will provide for them. As his sons grow up, some of the more unsavoury aspects of Fritz’s approach to fatherhood come into sharp relief: putting pressure on his sons to follow in his footsteps and obtain the world championship belt he never won; openly ranking his favourite sons, and counselling emotional repression in the face of pain, both physical and emotional. In a voiceover, Kevin sums up his father’s approach to life. “Ever since I was a child, people said my family was cursed,” he says—a reference to first-born Jack, Jr., who died as a young boy after he was electrocuted and drowned in a puddle. “Mom tried to protect us with God,” Kevin adds. “Dad tried to protect us with wrestling. He said if we were the toughest, the strongest, nothing could ever hurt us. I believed him. We all did.”

Those lines could be The Iron Claw’s thesis statement. A sports drama on the surface, this is really a film about family, loss, and—I always cringe when using this term, but it’s unavoidable here—“toxic masculinity”. Initially, Fritz Von Erich’s philosophy appears harmless enough, perhaps even commendable. It’s a worldview that many men sympathize with, due to socialization that emphasizes rugged individualism as the very essence of masculinity. Boys and men are told early on that the path to happiness and success is to be the “best”—the toughest, the strongest. It’s a variant of social Darwinism, or survival of the fittest. Fritz openly endorses this philosophy in his relationship to his sons. “Now, we all know Kerry's my favourite, then Kev, then David, then Mike,” he says casually over breakfast one morning. “But the rankings can always change.” He encourages his sons to compete with each other so the strongest can rise to the top.

Reality turns out to be messier than this “alpha-male” philosophy. Men, it turns out, are not Superman. They are ordinary mortals who can suffer great physical and emotional pain, and no amount of “toughing it out” can change that fact. When the family suffers one of their first great tragedies—it’s impossible to discuss these in any detail without going into spoilers, which are historical fact, but which those unaware should avoid learning before seeing the film—Fritz tells his sons, “I don’t want to see any tears.” God has decreed this turn of events, he says.

A theological digression: I’ll need to read up again on the story of Job, because the story is that Satan visits repeated tragedy on Job to test his faith in God. If you believe in a God that is truly omnipotent, nothing happens without the permission of God. This brings us to the old philosophical debate of the problem of evil. How can a God that is all-powerful and all-good allow bad things to happen to good people? There’s never been a satisfactory answer to that problem, in my opinion. The most popular responses are evasive, e.g. “God works in mysterious ways.” Fritz’s response to family tragedy rings hollow for the same reason.

The actors in this film are all fantastic, but special mention has to go to Zac Efron as the lead. Efron has come a long way since his High School Musical days, not least in terms of his physique. His physical transformation to play Kevin Von Erich is staggering, to almost a worrisome extent. Reports have surfaced in recent years of male actors using steroids, human growth hormone, etc. to achieve the muscular physiques necessary for roles such as superheroes, which one could argue are another example of how unrealistic images of masculinity can inflict real harm. What can be said for certain is that Efron provides an excellent physical and emotional performance. A climactic moment when he cries, despite being told growing up that “men don’t cry”, is a powerful catharsis. Thanks to good writing, Lily James as Kevin’s wife Pam Adkisson is also more effective than one might expect in the usually thankless role of love interest or concerned wife/girlfriend. She has her own dimensions and concerns, which become evident when Pam and Kevin split ways.

As good as The Iron Claw is, a major question one has to confront as soon as you know about the story of youngest brother Chris Von Erich is: was director Sean Durkin justified in omitting Chris from the film? On a dramatic level, I understand why Durkin made the creative decision he did. There’s so much tragedy in the Von Erichs’ story, it might have seemed too much for the average viewer and weakened the overall point of the story. But Collider makes a compelling case for why Chris Von Erich should have been included (warning: spoilers follow):

The life and death of Chris Von Erich is perhaps the most painful of all [the Von Erichs’ deaths]. His brothers were legends, muscular athletic specimens who fans looked at as if they were superheroes come to life. That burden was put on Chris as well, but he wasn't like his gifted siblings. Chris was only 5'5" and 175 pounds. On top of his small stature, he had asthma and brittle bones from the prednisone he took for it. That only made him want to be a wrestler even more…

Chris Von Erich wanted to be a wrestler, but his body wouldn't cooperate. In 1991, depression from his failed career and the deaths of his brothers, along with his physical pain, became too much to bear. In September 1991, he wrote a suicide note which included the lines, "It's nobody's fault. I'll be with my brothers." He then got high on cocaine and Valium, walked a hundred yards from the family home, and shot himself. Chris was only 21…

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, director Sean Durkin revealed why he chose not to have Chris Von Erich in The Iron Claw. The smallest Von Erich was actually in the original screenplay, which Durkin also wrote, for five years. In the final script, Durkin took Chris out. He said, “There was a repetition to it, and it was one more tragedy that the film couldn’t really withstand. I honestly don’t know if it would have gotten made.” Durkin admitted that "on a human level," the decision to cut Chris Von Erich was an "impossible choice." Still, he thought he had no choice but to remove his from the final draft because “You have to make difficult choices to try and get to something truthful or representative or emotional that reflects the core of the journey you’re choosing to tell within this family.”

The Iron Claw is all about brotherhood and the deep love the Von Erich boys had for each other. They loved each other so much that they couldn't take the loss of one another. In The Iron Claw, Kevin Von Erich speaks about his dream life involving living on a ranch with all of his brothers and their families. After Kerry dies, he envisions him in heaven with his brothers again. So, if that's the emotional core of the film, why leave one brother out? Yes, one more death would almost be too much, but that's part of the point. The Von Erich story is one of tragedy. We know what we're getting into when we sit down to watch The Iron Claw. How does a director decide that an audience can only handle so much of that tragedy? The Iron Claw is saying this is a story about brothers, but you're only going to be able to deal with so much of it, so we're cutting one out. That takes it from being its intent to a censored Hollywood creation.

The Iron Claw is 130 minutes long. Chris Von Erich could have been added, and you'd still only have a movie that was perhaps only 20 minutes longer. More so, Chris Von Erich deserves to have his story told, maybe more than anyone. Chris wasn't forced into wrestling, but had a passion for it. He was the little underdog who wanted it so much but wasn't physically capable. What a powerful story that is! He died partially because he thought he wasn't good enough, that he couldn't measure up. Three decades later, he is excluded and forgotten from a movie about his family, in a way almost proving his point.

Still, even with the arguable misstep of Chris Von Erich’s exclusion—and some mawkish moments such as a visualization of the afterlife that might have been better avoided—The Iron Claw remains an excellent, emotional picture that takes the apparently cartoonish world of professional wrestling and uses it to explore the deepest questions of family, pain, loss, fatherhood, and what it means to be a man. This is a tearjerker that earns its tears; a great film far more deserving of Best Picture and Best Actor nominations than the likes of the superficial, empty Maestro.

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