Content Warning: This story contains mentions of suicide and extreme violence
Historical movies have been pretty popular this past year. With films like Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon, we saw a lot of groundbreaking stories take the screen. Taking a more sports-focused turn, we received one of my favorite films from 2023: The Iron Claw.
This heart-wrenching wrestling movie about a true story of loss and perseverance caught the attention of many. With themes of anger, strength, gain and loss, we see into the lives of the well-known Von Erich brothers, a family of wrestlers looking to take on after their father who was a three time world champion. Starring Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, Lily James and more, the acting in this film touched a lot of hearts.
For any who haven’t seen the movie, spoilers ahead.
Kevin Von Erich, played by Efron, is our main character. Right off the bat, I think that Efron was the perfect choice to play this role. His emotion and even just his physical build worked super well for the film. Kevin is focused on his goal of becoming a heavyweight champion. This hardworking wrestler takes after his father, “Fritz” Von Erich, and learns from him to become the best. Kevin fights and pushes for the title of World Heavyweight Champion, the title his dad was never able to take home. Then Kevin’s brothers enter the picture, and tragedy strikes.
David Von Erich, one of Kevin’s brothers, quickly becomes the front runner for the title. His strong will and physical strength push him to the front, making him a good candidate for the win. That is, until he is touring in Japan and is found dead in his hotel room only a week before the fight. The cause of death is eventually determined to be enteritis, or the inflammation of the small intestine. This is when the audience is introduced to the Von Erich Curse, a well known superstition that the family is cursed with tragedy. This scene absolutely killed me. The timing of his death was so heartbreaking; I was devastated.
The next brother, Kerry Von Erich, and Kevin decided to do a coin flip to see who would fight for the title, as both brothers wanted to compete. Kerry won the flip and became the front runner of the family. However, similarly to David, his shot at the title was short lived, as he would soon lose his foot in a motorcycle accident, causing a break in his wrestling career. Jeremy Allen White played his role as Kerry so incredibly well. Personally, this was the first time I’ve been introduced to him as an actor. His emotions were clear and strong, this scene was heartbreaking.
Due to the rest of the family being unable to compete, Mike Von Erich, who originally had a passion for music, was pushed to wrestle by his father. After being trained by his brother Kevin, Mike suffers a shoulder injury that results in a toxic-shock-induced coma during surgery. Although he lived through the coma, he commits suicide after being pressured back into the ring. I don’t even know how to begin talking about this death. The acting of this scene was remarkable. My heart physically hurt, I felt like I was experiencing the grief and the panic along with the characters. Along with the intense emotion of the characters, it was such an amazingly done part of the film.
Despite the tragedy, Kevin fights in the championship. At the end of the fight, Kevin was disqualified for ignoring the referee while using his father’s famous “Iron Claw” move. This move consists of grabbing the opponent’s head and squeezing. After this fight, Kevin was put in charge of the World Class Champion Wrestling by his father. I’ve never seen action in a movie quite like this. Usually, fight scenes are between superheroes or things like that, but seeing a wrestling match in a movie was so different. Everything looked so perfect and smooth, but it didn’t stand out as super staged.
With all of the brothers out of the wrestling scene, Kerry decides to try wrestling again after getting a prosthetic foot as result of his injury. Tensions are high with the pressure of wrestling and with the lingering of the deaths in the family. Characters are visibly stressed, and the frequency of camera changes really helped the audience feel that.
During a Christmas get-together, Kerry gifts his father a new gun, before going into a rage after Fritz refuses to test it out. Later that night, Kerry calls Kevin talking about suicide and how he is scared of the curse. Kevin frantically calls his father to get him to check on Kerry. This is another example of Efron’s incredible acting. The panic he was in was contagious. His father refuses and says he would be okay and he has to learn to live on his own. The next morning, we see the devastating scene of Kerry lying on the ground holding the gun he gifted his father the day before.
This makes Kevin and Fritz the only ones remaining. I have never felt so frozen by a movie scene like this one. The pure shock that I was in was indescribable. You’d think that after all of the devastating scenes I saw, I might be a little desensitized to it, but you couldn’t be more wrong. This scene really pushed me over the edge. I don’t think I’ve ever bawled at a movie the way I did at this one. The emotion from the actors was so beautiful; they definitely played their roles well. The anger that Efron portrayed was so insanely well done, I too felt the rage of his character.
By this point, the amount of grief and tragedy that I saw in the last two hours was insane. To most people’s surprise, there was actually another brother who wasn’t shown in the movie. Chris Von Erich was the youngest of the brothers and worked behind the scenes of the wrestling organization. Just like his brothers, he aspired to be a wrestler. After suffering an arm injury, he opened up to Kevin about his suicidal thoughts. After a heartfelt conversation and a few back and forths, Kevin believed Chris was safe. Later that night, Chris shot himself in the head. An hour later, his body was discovered by Kevin and their mother, and he was pronounced dead 20 minutes later, weeks before his 22nd birthday. Director Sean Burkin stated in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that the movie was already too sad and emotion-filled, and including Chris’s story would truly make the movie unbearable, and I wholeheartedly agree.
As of today, Kevin Von Erich is the only member of the family left, with his wife and their four children.
This film left me in tears. I walked out of the theater with my mom, both of our faces coated mascara on our cheeks and hearts throbbing. The raw emotion of the acting and the story was devastating. As me and my family sat at dinner, I was still shocked by the story, and even more shocked when I found out about the fifth brother that wasn’t included. This movie was so well done, and definitely landed a place in one of my favorite movies of 2023. This action packed film kept me on the edge of my seat, definitely a film you could watch more than once.
