An interesting article* informs me of something that’s both surprising and unsurprising. If you’re a parent of a school-aged athlete, the odds of them being good enough to compete in the college level, much less the professional level, are vanishingly small. Impossible? No. Highly, highly unlikely? Absolutely.

Those odds don’t stop parents from pushing, though. When my son was in elementary school, he spent a couple of years playing soccer. There were two things I could always count on when watching a game. The first was my son zipping up and down the field like an enthusiastic puppy and maybe thirty percent of the time kicking the ball vaguely in the right direction. Did he have fun? Absolutely! Was he skilled? Not so much! He had fun and that’s all that mattered.

The second thing I knew would happen was the arrival of That Parent. They would stalk the sidelines, waving, jabbing a finger, yelling things like, “KEVIN! THE POCKET! FIND THE POCKET!” Kevin would always look over at the sound of his name, inevitably have the ball whiz past him, and That Parent would screech, “FOCUS!” To my eyes, Kevin never looked like he was having a good time.

On the surface, That Parent was nothing more than a minor irritant. Dig a little deeper and you can see it getting worse. Imagine conversations in the family SUV post-game, where Kevin is treated to either a lecture about performance or icy silence. When That Parent is in a real position of power and influence, the results can be ugly. We see that in the tragedy of the Von Erich family and in The Iron Claw, a cinematic adaptation of their story that’s sad and hopeful.

We’re introduced to Fritz Von Erich (Holt McCallany), a moderately successful Texas wrestler. He burns with the desire to be a champion, burns with the belief that “they” are keeping him from what he’s rightfully due. He’s married to Doris (Maura Tierney), who occasionally sees glimpses of the sweet man who played the clarinet. Those glimpses happen less and less often.

Their oldest son Jack Jr. dies young in an accident. It’s a tragedy, and it’s only the first tragedy the family will endure. Time passes, and while Jack Jr. is rarely spoken of, his memory weighs down the family. The oldest son is now Kevin (Zac Efron), an earnest young man who yearns for the approval of his father. The competition for that approval is fierce. His brother Kerry (Jeremy Allen White) broods, the very picture of still waters running deep. His other brother is David (Harris Dickinson), sunny and charismatic. 

The other other brother is Mike (Stanley Simons).*** There’s an outcast in every family, and Mike is it. He loves music, loves the feeling of creation. There’s no place for that in the Von Erich family, and Fritz sees to that. He’s neither a dad nor a father. He’s a taskmaster, molding his sons to be wrestling champions, precision engineered to bring greatness to the family. He wouldn’t recognize his abuse as abuse, but when he says, “Now, we all know Kerry’s my favorite, then Kev, then David, then Mike. But the rankings can always change, “ we understand the emotional manipulation for what it is.

That manipulation affects all of the brothers. Initially, they only have each other to cling to. In a voiceover, Kevin muses, “He said if we were the toughest, the strongest, nothing could ever hurt us. I believed him. We all did.” His intense athleticism won’t protect him. His new love for Pam (Lily James) won’t either, but it might show him a way to break what feels like a curse.

While I’m not interested in pro wrestling as a fan, I admire it as a fusion between sport and live theater. To be sure, it’s “fake,” yet that artifice requires considerable skill. A successful wrestler must be intensely athletic, able to read both the body language of their opponent and the crowd, and genuinely sell emotion. In short, an actor.** 

The Iron Claw is a showcase of genuinely impressive acting, and it’s not lost on me that in a movie about professional wrestling, the performances by and large are subtle. In a lesser film, the actor playing Fritz would yell, stomp, and throw punches at his boys. Holt McCallany is too smart for that. He rarely raises his voice, and he knows narrowed eyes and a clenched jaw carry disapproval more effectively. Fritz might be a monster, but he’s a human one who thinks he’s doing right by his boys. He’s supported ably by Jeremy Allen White. As Kerry, he’s inherited his father’s anger. He seems to turn his rage inward through self-destructive tendencies. Harris Dickinson’s David tries to balance that out by being buoyant and likable. Stanley Simons is heartbreaking as Mike, who’s forced into wrestling for the good of the family and pays a terrible price. I liked the bubbly humor and steely resolve of Lily James as Pam, and while I think her role is a little thankless, I get why the focus was placed where it was.

Perhaps the first among equals in the cast is Zac Efron as Kevin. He’s put on a ton of muscle, and in his performance, he uses it to hide. Watch the scene where Kevin is on his first date with Pam. She questions him about what he wants to do with his life. Mechanically, he tells her he wants to be the heavyweight champion. When she presses him about what he really wants, it’s like a shutter opens in Efron’s face as he talks about living with his brothers. Kevin has learned the lessons of his father well and uses his musculature to absorb trauma. He doesn’t have to, and Efron effectively shows us where Kevin starts and how he changes.

Director Sean Durkin isn’t making a sports movie filled with brutality, but like Raging Bull, he uses the sport his characters are involved with as a delivery system for their emotional journey. Durkin understands that the violence and conflict in the ring might or might not be real, and that the athletes need to suppress or pump up those aspects depending on the scenario. In the ring, we’re often not sure if there’s real pain, such as a moment when Kevin is thrown onto a concrete floor and nearly doesn’t get up in time. He saves that pain for scenes out of the ring, and constantly ratchets up the tension until it’s released in a truly cathartic ending. 

There’s a sequence I won’t spoil, but I wondered if it’s meant to be magical realism, the desperate wish of a character, or a little bit of both. You’ll know it when you see it, and in the moment, I felt like it was emotionally necessary. Durkin’s screenplay is all about emotional necessities, allowing the characters to show us how they’re feeling, even if they can’t quite articulate it themselves. It’s sad as hell, yet the tragedy is balanced well with how the characters look for support. The brothers find unconditional support and love between each other, and Kevin finds a relationship of equals with Pam. 

The Iron Claw is a good sports story and a great drama about a family grappling with grief. It makes me think about families, how parents too often use their children to burnish their own legacies. In a small way, I think I caught a glimpse of that on my son’s soccer field. After all,  That Parent just wants to raise a champion, and they’ll break their kids to make it happen.

 

*Which you can read here.

**That raises the question, is it harder to teach a wrestler to act or to teach an actor to wrestle? 

***A little research taught me that Chris Von Erich is missing from the film. Along with two of his other brothers, he took his own life. My understanding is that Sean Durkin cut him from the film because, from a narrative standpoint, that much tragedy would be unbelievable to audiences. He’s not wrong.



Tim Brennan
Tim has been alarmingly enthusiastic about movies ever since childhood. He grew up in Boulder and, foolishly, left Colorado to study Communications in Washington State. Making matters worse, he moved to Connecticut after meeting his too-good-for-him wife. Drawn by the Rockies and a mild climate, he triumphantly returned and settled down back in Boulder County. He's written numerous screenplays, loves hiking, and embarrassed himself in front of Samuel L. Jackson. True story.  
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