My Review of The Iron Claw (2023)

 

Written And Directed by Sean Durkin

Kevin Von Erich: "I used to be a brother."

I got to be honest, sports movies are generally not my thing and I have a very sporadic interest in wrestling at best. Saying that, there's been hype for this particular movie, so I decided to watch it out of curiosity.

Again, due to my sporadic interest in wrestling, I didn't have a clue who the Von Erich family were or their legacy as a wrestling team but it appeared that this movie summed up everything I needed to know.

The Von Erichs themselves comprised of brothers Kevin (Zac Efron), David (Harris Dickinson), Kerry (Jeremy Allen White) and Mike (Stanley Simons), all of whom had various aspirations to be the best wrestler with their father, Fritz (Holt McCallany) essentially playing off them each other while their mother, Doris (Maura Tierney) seemed more detached than Fritz from the boys at times.

One of the most interesting things about this movie was the discussion of a family curse for the Von Erichs. Fritz seemed dismissive of the idea while Kevin very much believed in it and given how death followed the Von Erichs, Kevin was right to believe it.

As the movie progressed, the deaths of David, Mike and Kerry all weighed heavily on Kevin to the point where it even affected his marriage to Pamela (Lily James) before his own sons were able to pull him out of his despair. The bond between the Von Erichs definitely anchored this movie.

However while decent screen time was given to the brothers, for logistical reasons, the focus was largely on Kevin. It's a pity this movie has been almost left out of the awards love because Zac Efron alone definitely delivered a career best performance here. He's grown a lot as an actor over the last few years and he did some fantastic work in this film alone.

- Maxwell Friedman appeared as Lance Von Erich when Mike had to sit out a wrestling match due to toxic shock.

- Doris admitted that she had aspirations to be a painter and Mike originally wanted to be a musician before going into wrestling.

- Yes, the scene where all the dead brothers and Jack Jr was a very emotive moment in the movie.

- Chronology: From 1979 to 2009, going by the textual epilogue.

The Iron Claw turned out to be a very engaging movie with some great performances and fight scenes nicely recreated. There's some bits that lag a little but overall, it's a strong movie that probably should be getting more award love that it's getting.

Rating: 7 out of 10