‘I used to be a brother…’
The world of professional wrestling has made for great cinema in recent years. Both The Wrestler and Fighting with My Family have approached this topic with great success and The Iron Claw further succeeds. In fact, it is very possibly the best of the three…
The Von Erich family are obsessed with professional wrestling. Patriarch Fritz (Holt McCallany) rules the roost over his four sons (portrayed by Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson, Stanley Simons and Zac Efron) to the extent that he updates each of them with where they currently rank as his ‘favourite’. The Iron Claw takes us through the happy if high-pressure childhood of the Von Erich children through to their tumultuous adulthood against the backdrop of the family believing they are cursed.
Efron delivers a career-best performance here but really the whole cast is outstanding. McCallany, so impressive in Mindhunter, is equally wonderful here, demonstrating Fritz’s commitment to his sons but also how and why that commitment became toxic. In that respect, The Iron Claw brings to mind Whiplash. The Von Erich brothers achieve varying degrees of greatness but at what cost?
Writer-director Sean Durkin knows when to focus on the wrestling and when to pull back and zoom in on the family drama. This gives his film the feel of a typical sports movie rags-to-riches arc but with a very different story at its core. This is a film about sports, yes, but primarily it’s a film about family. About what can happen if you push someone too far. To breaking point. And the repercussions that pressure and stress can have on someone’s self-esteem. Most of all this is an incredibly well-written and well-acted film about a real family that feels real. Feels authentic. It’s an utter scandal that The Iron Claw was overlooked at the Oscars. The streets won’t forget.