The Iron Claw, based on the real story of professional wrestling’s most tragic family the Von Erichs, is not exactly a world heavyweight contender. The film tries to cover too much ground and has obvious pacing issues. It also fails to devote enough time to major figures in its very sad tale. And it also suffers from providing an inconsistent point of view about the clan’s patriarch. The movie doesn’t show Jack Von Erich as a complicated person so we can evaluate him ourselves. It wavers from clearly presenting him as a tough, loving, flawed dad who truly meant well to showing him as an uncaring, egotistical monster ultimately responsible for many of his kids’ deaths. A stronger perspective on his culpability in creating a family “curse” could have made for a stronger movie.
And yet, despite those problems, The Iron Claw still ultimately works for two main reasons. The first is the cast, led by star Zac Efron. The film features compelling and moving performances that overcome oftentimes clunky dialogue. And it ultimately resonates on an emotional level because it gets the most important element of this story right. It makes us care about the Von Erichs—a group of famous, larger-than-life performers who dominated the Texas wrestling scene in the 1980s—as a family first.
The Von Erich family is essentially pro wrestling’s modern day Greek tragedy. The scope of their loss is still unimaginable. If, like me, you already know the nightmares that befell them, it’s still hard to believe everything that happened as you watch The Iron Claw. Their loss is so large the film leaves out an entire brother and his own sad end. But even with that omission the movie tries to tell too much of this story. You would need an entire mini-series to fully capture the breadth of this sad tale. The obvious restrictions posed by a single feature film are felt throughout the movie.
After a methodical first act, the film suddenly feels rushed. Even those coming into this story fresh will recognize important events, developments, and time periods are glossed over if not outright skipped entirely. Drug habits and out of control behavior begin with little reason given. Working relationships clearly vital to the Von Erichs many developing personal problems aren’t given the space needed to fully establish the link between the two. Far too many elements of the story are incomplete. The movie asks its audience to fill in too many gaps on its own.
The problem is those gaps are too important to leave to the imagination. We can fill them in, but seeing the Von Erichs deal with them, and seeing the movie’s perspective on them, would make for a far more engaging experience. It’s almost as though writer-director Sean Durkin was (with good reason) so desperate to avoid a feeling of melodrama he overcorrected the other way.
The irony is that the script, which far too often relies on its viewers to do heavy lifting, also features some painful dialogue. It’s one thing for Jack to tell his son “he’s the fastest and always will be.” It’s another for him to follow that up with, “And that’s why they’ll never catch you.” If that sounds hacky in print it’s even worse said aloud. It’s a problem that comes up a lot in the movie.
The film’s portrayal of Jack (who wrestled as Fritz Von Erich) is another problem, though that has nothing to do with Holt McCallany’s performance. The film asks its viewers to do a lot, but it somehow doesn’t ask us to decide if Jack was the “curse” that brought down his family or himself a victim of it. Instead it sometimes present him as a good dad who made mistakes, and other times as a clear villain. It bizarrely waffles between those two extremes with little room for interpretation.
The result is a frustrating figure. Some scenes we like and understand Jack despite his mistakes and parenting. Others feel like watching a stock character. He goes from feeling human to a cartoon idea of a bad dad. If not for McCallany’s performance Jack would be an even bigger albatross on the film.
The entire cast is a big reason The Iron Claw ultimately succeeds. Zac Efron gives a fantastic performance, both physically and emotionally. His Kevin is, for reasons that will be obvious, the center of the story. (A story that does offer hope amid so much horror.) Efron is asked to do a lot with a challenging part and he does it all exceedingly well. In wrestling parlance, he lands every move. From everything between quiet strength to uncontrolled grief, he carries the movie throughout.
Jeremy Allen White is also a standout as Kevin’s brother Kerry. Unfortunately Allen White is not utilized nearly enough. (Kerry could, and probably should, have his own movie.) The film left me begging for more scenes with him. The same is true of Lily Allen as Kevin’s wife Pam and Harris Dickinson as David Von Erich. They’re all so good, but the film doesn’t have time to give them the focus they deserve.
Maura Tierney, as the boys God-loving mother Doris, also could carry an entire film. She’s presented as the complex character I wish Jack had been, and Tierney is terrific with a very hard part. She’ll have you furious with her at the same time you just want to hug her. One character I was never mad at, though, was Stanley Simons’ younger brother Mike. Simons is stunning in a quieter role that easily could have disappeared in this story. He embodies the heartbreaking humanity that makes this story worth telling. He also features in my favorite scene, a moment at a party where the fact these were real people with real hopes and dreams hits you like a clothesline to the face.
That’s also why this movie is still worth watching despite its issues. Durkin fundamentally understands this story. The Von Erichs might be important historical figures in professional wrestling, but that’s not who they were. They were an actual family who loved each other and mourned one another. The Iron Claw perfectly captures that. The four boys feel like real siblings who care about each other completely. They also feel like the products of the same real imperfect parents. By both establishing and focusing on their authentic bond the movie overcomes its problems. When Kevin says he just wants to be with his family you know he means it. You feel it. So when he loses his family you feel that loss, too.
The Iron Claw did the one thing he had to do: it made me care about the Von Erichs not as wrestlers but as people. It made me care about them as individuals, as brothers, sons, fathers, husbands, wives, and parents. But most importantly it made me care about them as a family. With a tale this tragic that might sound easy, but it was really its hardest task. The facts of a story don’t make a biopic work. Making us invest in the real people those events happened to does, and The Iron Claw does just that.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.