The Iron Claw

The story of the Von Erich brothers is one of towering failure, despite the fact that they made history dominating the highly competitive world of professional wrestling in the early 1980s. The result of being raised in a poisonous stew of toxic masculinity, abusive and neglectful parenting, and an all-or-nothing pursuit of fame, glory, and a larger-than-life immortality, the great heights of Von Erich brothers’ lives inevitably leads to their long fall.

Based on a true story of America…

In 1979, the Von Erichs are the all-American family… nothing but sports, guns, and god plastered all over the country ducks and blue hearts decor of their rambling ranch house home in the humid and dusty scrubland of Denton, Texas, a solidly Republican, historically segregatesd, mostly white, Tornado alley suburb nestled down within the northern end of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Under the heavy tyrannical hand of their father, the family’s days are spent working their ranch, but over anything else, they’re a family of pro-wrestlers.

They’re also cursed.

Not in an official way, not by a witch or anything, but still, despite how much they all strive to be the toughest, the strongest, and the most successful, bad things just keep on happening to them.

In real life there were six boys, and by the time their father, Fritz, died of cancer in 1997 at age 68, five of them had preceded him in death. Jack jr. died at the age of six in Niagra Falls, after being accidentally electrocuted by a downed power line and then drowned in a puddle. David died in a Tokyo hotel from enteritis at age 25. Three of the other brothers all died by suicide, Mike from pills, Chris shot himself in the head, and Kerry shot himself in the chest in the front yard of the family home. Kevin was truly the last man standing.

Like I said, cursed.

But also like I said, they weren’t cursed by a witch, but by their dad.

The filmmakers left Chris completely out of the movie. I assume they did this because while his suicide can probably still be traced to his father, it apparently wasn’t directly related to the pressures their father put on them through pro-wrestling, so I guess the filmmakers didn’t feel like they had enough room in the story for a sixth additional tragedy, which is probably the best decision they made while making the film.

So, in the movie, there are four boys in the family, all of whom wear tighty-whiteys, and nothing but tights-whiteys, as often as possible. There used to be five, but like I said, Jack jr. was electrocuted and drowned in a puddle.

Kevin is a pro-wrestling champ. He’s got the power, but not the presence. David is also a pro-wrestling champ. He’s got the mouth, but not the heart. Kerry’s an Olympic discus thrower, but he’s destined to never compete due to the U.S boycotting the ‘76 Moscow Olympics, so instead he becomes a pro-wrestler. And finally there’s Mike. He’s a little more sensitive than the others, an artist, a budding musician, but soon enough, he’ll be a pro-wrestler too.

They are all very close.

They’re just this side of feral, really, their mother outnumbered five to one. Mom is cold, aloof, and proper, maintaining the house, taking care of dinner and the laundry, but leaving the raising of the boys to their father. Dad makes no secret of which son is his favorite, openly ranking his children to their faces in an incredibly awful attempt to encourage a near-constant sense of competition between them. It’s clear from the start that Fritz Von Erich has no interest in his sons’ lives when they aren’t in the service of his own, because Fritz is only interested in glory. A former pro-wrestler himself, with the signature move of The Iron Claw, he’s a guy who was almost a star, but he never got that belt, so now that he’s retired, if he can’t grab the glory himself, then he’ll get it through his boys.

But consistently, whenever one of the boys tries to speak to either of their parents about a personal or emotional issue, they are cut off, and very curtly told that this is something that they will have to work out between themselves. I realize it’s a movie, so who knows how accurate it all is, but at least here, in the movie, no matter how cowardly the film is about showing it ultimately, two things are very, very clear…

The Von Erich home is a very bad place.

And because of that, bad things keep happening to this family

David dies in Japan. To take David’s place in the heavyweight match against Rick Flair, their dad flips a coin between Kevin and Kerry. Kerry wins the coin toss, and then wins the match. The Von Erichs are finally the world heavyweight champions in wrestling. To celebrate, Kerry goes for a motorcycle ride without a helmet. He crashes, but survives, but loses his right foot. His career is over, having gone out at the top, but his pain management is getting out of control. He keeps wrestling, but he’s basically running headlong downhill and is gonna fall at any moment. He shoots himself in the front yard of the family home, using the gun he bought his father for Christmas. As a result, Michael, the sensitive one, gets thrown into the ring, but he really doesn’t have the talent or the interest, and injures himself during the match. During the surgery to fix his shoulder, he suffers from toxic shock syndrome, and after two hours of intense fever, falls into a coma. When he wakes again, he’s not the same, and eventually ends up committing suicide by taking a bunch of pills.

Kevin is still wrestling, but it’s just not the same without his brothers. He’s convinced that the family is cursed, and for a time won’t come home for fear of infecting his wife and children with it. Finally, he faces Ric Flair for the world heavyweight title, but he can’t hack it. He loses it in the ring, and is disqualified.

And that’s it, he goes home. He returns to his family, and eventually sells the family wrestling business over the objections of his piece of shit father.

The Iron Claw is a film of unrelenting tragedy, narcissistic parenting, and abusive upbringing, all done in the name of glory, “excellance,” and “learning to be tough,” and all while taking place in a uniquely American setting, which makes it very much a film about America and its rotten soul, the direct result of having been submerged in a toxic stew of the patriarchy, religion, guns, and winning at all costs.

Unfortunately, it is also a film that is too afraid to really show into how incredibly tragic this story truly is, consistently turning away from the pain and ugliness at the last moment. The entire story is told in a cowardly way, only lightly touching on what is obviously the real issue, and in the end, is sunk by cheap sentimentality. But if we’re being honest here, the fact that the film refuses to address the real issues, and instead just power-smiles through the tragedy, focusing on “just the good stuff” only makes this very American story all the more truly American.

Torn between its fevered desire to be Oscar bait, while also venerating both the Von Erich family legacy, as well as the sport of Pro-Wrestling, a legacy and a sport that is directly responsible for killing this family, this tonal clash ultimately wrecks the film by undermining what little sincerity and insight it actually had. Coupled with the way it shies away from showing any of the story’s actual pain, opting instead to merely imply it, we’re left with a film that feels as overly-choreographed and fake as the very sport the Von Erichs are most known for.

Disappointing.