The Iron Claw review: Brilliant cautionary tale of parental pressure; and a tribute to wrestling's most 'cursed' family

Director: Sean Durkin

Cast: Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson, Maura Tierney, Stanley Simons, Holt McCallany, and Lily James

Where to watch: Lionsgate Play

Rating: 4 stars

Sports films are almost always uplifting. They are the stories of the underdog, inspiring you to remember that the little guy wins too. Years ago, Clint Eastwood had subverted that with the depressing-but-brilliant Million Dollar Baby. Now, Sean Durkin takes it a notch higher with The Iron Claw, a slow and steady tragedy about the ‘curse’ that befell on the Von Erich family of wrestling. Peppered with some amazing performances and a melancholy that never leaves you, The Iron Claw is a masterpiece in exploring the lasting events of parental pressure.

The Von Erichs were the first family of wrestling in Texas. Fritz (Holt McCallany), the patriarch, wanted one thing – to be the world heavyweight champion. When he could not achieve that, he set out to live vicariously through his sons, only for almost all of them to meet tragic ends, either by accident or suicide. For a brief moment in the 80s, the Von Erichs had it all, even a contender for the world title, before it all came crashing down. The Iron Claw chronicles their life from the late-70s to the early-90s through the eyes of two of the brothers – Kevin (Zac Efron) and Kerry (Jeremy Allen White).

The first rule to watching The Iron Claw is a mandatory separation of the real from the reel. The film is not an accurate retelling of the Von Erich story. It takes a lot of cinematic liberties, the biggest of which is the absence of Chris Von Erich, the youngest brother. But the liberties and deviations do not dampen the film, nor do they make it any less real. The spirit of the curse of the Von Erich family remains. The slow burn moves steadily, making you root for the brothers right from the beginning, and hating their father a little bit too.

The Iron Claw is easily what Dangal could have been. Both are about ambitious fathers who want their children to achieve something they could not. Both fathers have a certain amount of toxicity in their behaviour. But where Dangal celebrated that toxicity as parental nurture, The Iron Claw calls it out for what it is – pressure. The brothers grow up never wanting to disappoint their father. Zac Efron, in another fine performance after Ted Bundy, beautifully brings out the tentativeness, shakiness, and self-doubts of Kevin. Never wanting to disappoint his father and forever in the shadow of his younger brothers, he is the film’s sutradhar, taking you along on this journey.

Efron is wonderfully supported by two stellar performances - Holt McCallany as the extracting father Fritz and Jeremy Allen White as the ambitious Kerry. McCallany had the more difficult role and he pulls it off with strange ease. The self-righteousness with which he plays Fritz is amazing to watch and sometimes even uneasy. Jeremy Allen White, too, impresses as Kerry, the Olympic hopeful-turned-wrestler. Another star of the story is Maura Tierney, who shines in two brilliant post-death scenes as the family matriarch Doris Von Erich.

The Iron Claw works so well because it focuses as much on the wrestling as it does on the family’s relationships. The wrestling sequences are slick and convincing. Former WWE star Chavo Guerrero, who trained the actors (appears himself in a cameo), lends that credibility to the film. The inclusion of Von Erichs’ greatest rivals Harley Race and Ric Flair firmly grounds this film in reality. The only blemish, if you can call it, is Aaron Dean Eisenberg’s off-putting portrayal of Ric Flair. He is as from the Nature Boy as one can be.

But The Iron Claw is not about accuracy as much as it is about capturing the sentiment of what exactly unyielding pressure and expectations from a parent can do to their children. Fritz is not depicted as a bad man, but a complex and flawed one. The brothers are also not weak but simply young boys wanting to make their father proud and win the ultimate glory. But what they forget and sacrifice along the way is the lesson for us all.

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