The Iron Claw
The heartbreaking and tragic true story of the family of wrestlers known as Von Erichs.
Index:
Flim Profile
Introduction
Review
The Von Erichs’ real story
Movie’s reliability and what was left out
The curse
Chris Von Erich
Was Fritz Von Erich really such an oppressive father?
Conclusion
Flim Profile
Title: The Iron Claw
Release year: 2023
Film length: 2h 12m
Genres: Tragedy, Sport, Biopic
Writer and Director: Sean Durkin
Stars: Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson, Maura Tierney, Stanley Simons, Holt McCallany, Lily James
Introduction
The Iron Claw recounts the true story of the inseparable Von Erich brothers, who made history in the intensely competitive world of professional wrestling in the early 1980s.
The film depicts the struggles of wrestling company owner Fritz Von Erich’s sons to achieve the success their father groomed them for. However, the family is "cursed" by constant tragedy.
The movie is titled after the “iron claw”, an in-ring signature move of the Von Erichs.
The writer and director Sean Durkin had a long-term aspiration to create a film based on the Von Erich family for he was a fan of professional wrestling during his youth and he was personally saddened by the string of Von Erich family deaths.
Being myself completely unaware of this family’s story, I must admit that the movie extraordinarily succeeded in surprising the audience (or at least me) with its turning points and plot twists as my jaw literally dropped multiple times.
There will be spoilers ahead.
Review
The Iron Claw portrays all the difficulties and tragedies this family of wrestlers had to go through.
It harshly puts on stage the emotions and feelings of these four brothers who, in the desperate attempt of not disappointing their father’s expectations, push themselves to the limit and beyond.
The householder Fritz, who once dreamed of winning the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship, inculcates in his sons the same desire so that they can reach the goal he has always wanted to achieve and thus bring home the much-craved belt.
He will put his children in constant competition against each, all of them wanting to fulfill the desire to achieve fame. This sport and the gained fame, however, will also be among the main reasons for their downfall.
A week before his match against Flair, David dies of enteritis while touring in Japan. Both Kevin and Kerry volunteer to fight Flair in his place but Fritz lets a coin flip decide, resulting in Kerry being the one to face Flair — beating him and winning the World Heavyweight Championship. Although Fritz is overjoyed, a disheartened and drunk Kerry goes out for a motorcycle ride and loses his right foot in an accident.
Kevin begins training his younger brother Mike, who badly injures his shoulder during a match and goes into a coma during surgery. Mike narrowly emerges from his coma with noticeable brain damage and when Fritz presses him to get back in the ring, he takes his own life. Kevin, grief-stricken, starts to distance himself from his wife and son fearing the "curse" will affect them too.
Kerry returns to wrestling with a new prosthetic leg and, for Christmas, he gifts his father a new gun but becomes upset when Fritz puts it away instead of firing it. Kerry will confess his oldest brother that the curse's constant presence and his declining career have made him consider suicide.
Once again, we witness the father’s absence in his sons’ lives as long as it is not something concerning wrestling. Kevin begs Fritz to look after his brother while he gets there. Kevin does not receive the hoped help and he arrives at Fritz's house the next morning, just in time to hear Kerry commit suicide with the gun, and nearly strangles Fritz to death out of rage.
Then, we see a heart-wrenching scene: in a sort of vision, Kerry finally rejoins his dead brothers. Sailing on a boat, he finally reaches the dock where his brothers are. In a sweet yet extremely dramatic hug, Kerry clutches David and Mike to hisself.
Ultimately, he also has the chance to get to know his older brother who died before he was even born. Little Jack is portrayed as a kid who has not aged since his departure. Therefore, Kerry seems more of an older brother to him and, perhaps, in this afterlife, he will look after Jack Jr. just like a big brother.
So, in the end, they get to meet each other once again and forever, finally at peace.
«Tonight, I walk with my brothers.»
The very last sequence, though still heartbreaking, somehow glues those broken pieces back together.
Kevin, seeing his two sons playing football together, feels extremely brokenhearted and nostalgic for he used to be a brother but now has none.
His children, noticing him being extremely melancholic, decide to comfort him. They pronounce a seemingly stupid sentence that is, instead, rich in emotional meaning and that is definitely what he needed to hear.
«We'll be your brothers, Dad.»
Now he doesn’t have to hide his feelings anymore. He is a man and men cry too. He deserves to do it so to let off steam after all he’s been through.
- “A man doesn’t cry.”
- “You can cry. Everybody cries. We cry all the time.”
Now he can enjoy his life with his children (and grandchildren) and offer them a better existence compared to the one he had.
The Von Erichs’ real story
Originally from Texas, the Von Erich family (whose actual surname is Adkisson) is an American professional wrestling. Jack Adkisson, better known as Fritz Von Erich, took on the name as part of his wrestling gimmick.
By the time Fritz died of cancer at the age of 68, five of his six sons had predeceased him, three by suicide. His firstborn, Jack Jr., was accidentally shocked and drowned in a puddle at the age of 6. In 1984, David Von Erich died in a Tokyo hotel from enteritis at the age of 25. Mike, Chris (not present in the movie) and Kerry all died by suicide. Kevin is the only surviving son.
These deaths are the main basis for a widespread myth about their family curse.
Movie’s reliability and what was left out
The curse
The Von Erich family’s story is somehow even bleaker, and more tragic, than The Iron Claw portrays.
We’re told early on in The Iron Claw that the Von Erichs believe there’s a curse plaguing their family. Kevin says that ever since he was a child, people have said his family was cursed. Early on he states: “Pop 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.”
In reality, it is alleged that the curse started back when Fritz Von Erich was a wrestler in his own right, so much before that the movie says.
His persona in the ring, the Von Erich name, was originally intended to be a Nazi heel – hence his use of a German name. Legend has it that the curse began when Fritz was confronted after a match by a Holocaust survivor who lost all of his sons in concentration camps.
Since then, the real Kevin has revealed that he doesn't believe in any curse: “I believe in God, I believe he’s a fair and loving God that has our best interests at heart. And things that we overcome make us stronger. So no, I don’t believe in a curse.”
Chris Von Erich
If The Iron Claw’s portrayal of four Von Erich sibling deaths already seemed nightmarish beyond belief, in reality, there was also a fifth brother, Chris, the youngest.
Chris Von Erich was not included in the screenplay because, according to Durkin, "it was one more tragedy that the film couldn't really withstand". Chris died by suicide in 1991, a year and a half prior to Kerry Von Erich.
Was Fritz Von Erich really such an oppressive father?
The remaining Von Erich brother, Kevin, has publicly disagreed with The Iron Claw’s portrayal of his father.
He described The Iron Claw as not being “historical” and rejected the film’s implication that Fritz’s forceful nature had any influence on his brothers’ suicides for he was an honorable man. The Iron Claw is a fictional work and, just like many other good films, takes some creative liberties, so it is inevitable that Von Erich disagrees with some of its events and implications.
Conclusion
Bearing in mind that something we see in the movie may not correspond to reality, the feature either way gives much to reflect about.
The story of the Von Erich family is presented as a tale about parental influence, sibling rivalry, generational trauma, toxic parenting, oppressive masculinity as well as the various dangers of the professional wrestling business.
It is a bittersweet tale of an unbreakable, heavily gendered sibling bond.
It is the demonstration that words and attitudes can have a great impact on one’s persona. The authority and oppression Fritz impose on his children (if not in reality, at least in the movie) point out the nefarious consequences they might lead to. His “iron claw” left a permanent scar on his family’s progeny.
As I said, we do not actually know whether the father was like that in real life. However, what we can affirm is that the obsessive desire of pushing them forward, is what has later caused the collapse.
Words have enormous value and we should never underestimate the weight they can have in shaping a person’s personality, along with all the insecurities and fears of failure they may generate.
Needless to say that I sobbed during the movie and I also cried while writing this article. :’)
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