Professional wrestling is all about scale — and escalation. It’s not enough to be a champion; there needs to be a world champion. The in-ring characters have to be cults of personality. The muscles should have muscles. Approaching films about the sport might cause some directors to go as big and broad as possible — but not with Sean Durkin and The Iron Claw.
The first moments of the new project from Martha Marcy May Marlene and The Nest filmmaker are bold, setting the tone for this adaptation of a true-life Texas tragedy that’s almost so heart-wrenching that it’s hard to believe it’s all true: the curse of the Von Erich wrestling family. From the moments of the black and white, Raging Bull-esque prologue, there’s already a spectral element lingering over the proceedings as Fritz Von Erich (Holt McCallany) takes on an opponent in the ring in the 1960s, eventually breaking out his signature move that serves as the film’s title.
As the outstretched, warped fingers wrap around his foe’s face to form the maneuver, Fritz is deemed the winner, but even victory isn’t enough. In the parking lot with his young boys and wife Doris (Maura Tierney) after, Fritz drills in a mantra: “I will be the world champion and nothing will hurt us again.” Why the obsessive nature? “It’s the only way to beat this thing,” he snarls. As we’ll soon know, this unspoken thing is death itself. Only, it’s a losing battle. Death is undefeated.
Death’s status as the reigning champion isn’t enough to stop the next generation of Von Erich from making themselves strong enough to think they can take it on, however. The Iron Claw jumps into the 70s, where the four boys are waging their battles. Kevin (Zac Efron in what’s far and away his best performance) is the most acclaimed wrestler in the family thus far, and his position as the oldest makes him feel the weight of responsibility to keep everyone together, although his heart and soul are as massive as his He-Man-like shape. Kerry (Jeremy Allen White) is a soon-to-be Olympian. David (Harris Dickinson, doing tremendous work with his limited screen time) is affable and quick on the spot. Mike (newcomer Stanley Simons) is rail thin and more focused on playing the guitar than playing up kayfabe.
All-in-all, the Von Erichs are outliving this presumed curse, embracing one another with a rad bromance that makes this an easy entry into the dudes rock hall of fame. Durkin spends the first half of the movie building each of the brothers up through quiet, small, slice-of-life moments that feel pulled from a Linklater movie, showing the extent of their love for one another. A sequence with them tubing down a river in the Texas heat exemplifies the ideal life they could enjoy if anyone other than Fritz were their father. That’s not to mention the thrill each of the boys take in seeing Kevin start to fall in love with Pam (Lily James, making the most of the traditional wife role). Those moments, partnered with thrillingly rendered moments inside the pitch-perfect recreation of the World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) ring, show the highest of highs before circumstances — read, Fritz — begin to tear them all asunder as all four brothers begin to step into the ring, with devastating repercussions.
Once the tragedy starts, it doesn’t stop. So much so that it feels like it’s almost too much. And yet, even so, Durkin toned down the real-life events, removing one of the other real-life siblings from his adaptation altogether to streamline the story. Efron is the throughline of it all; as the defacto lead, Durkin turns to him to carry The Iron Claw’s biggest emotional beats on his enormous shoulders, and he nails it off the top rope every time. The childlike nature in which Efron plays these moments only adds to the crushing nature of it all, partnered with how internal the performance is. Some looks flirt and dance across Efron’s face that I’ll never forget. That’s to say nothing of the physical ones; there’s a scene where Efron curls up into a ball, and never has a man that big looked so small. It’s crushing and makes every single one of the tragedies that befall him and the rest of his family all the harder to endure.
But in defeat, there is victory. Make no mistake, The Iron Claw rivals All of Us Strangers in how it pinned me to the emotional mat throughout its runtime, but the film’s ending is such a triumph that I didn’t care how manipulated I was during the process. Like a good wrestling match, we may know that we’re getting played at every stage of the fight, but that doesn’t make it any less satisfying to behold. So goes The Iron Claw, in the best ways possible.
