The Iron Claw - Movie Review

The Movie: The Iron Claw

The Director: Sean Durkin

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

The Story: The true story of the inseparable Von Erich brothers, who made history in the intensely competitive world of professional wrestling in the early 1980s.

The Review:

This is one of those movies that grows on me the more I think about it. There are times when a story doesn't hit me in the right moment but later on, I grow to appreciate it more and more and I believe the trigger for that in this case is the career topping performance from Zac Efron. The actor himself has been through a lot over the years and, while this may not be a full on resurgence of his career since he never completely fell off, this could definitely be considered a major turning point towards shedding the reputation of being that guy from High School Musical.

In this movie, Efron plays Kevin Von Erich, the eldest of four brothers who took the wrestling world by storm back in the days of regional promotions in the 1980's before WWE became the dominant multimedia force that it is today. Also on the bill are Jeremy Allen White as Kerry Von Erich, Harris Dickinson as David Von Erich, Stanley Simons as Mike Von Erich, and Holt McCallany as Fritz Von Erich, the patriarch of the family. I would say the casting for this story is definitely one of the highlights although my childhood memories picture Kerry as being much taller than he is in the movie, not a big deal though as White still did a great job.

Being a wrestling fan for as long as I can remember, this movie was definitely filled with a lot of nostalgia even if I was never super familiar with the Von Erich family. I remember watching them mostly on the NWA shows that aired on TBS and then for a brief time when Kerry turned up on WWF but, before watching this movie, I wouldn't hacve been able to tell you much about them. I think that's what was most enjoyable for me was getting that peak behind the curtain and being able to see what the lives of these men was really like, as you can imagine it was far more difficult than the glitz and glam that's portrayed in front of the cameras.

The wrestling scenes are all very well done and you really get a sense of what it was like back in those barnstorming days where every promotion was fighting for any bit of an audience they could scrape together and everyone was giving it their all every single night. The one time things for a little goofy for me was when Aaron Dean Eisenberg was given the impossible task of recreating the energy and charisma of the one and only "Nature Boy" Ric Flair who is easily one of the most iconic personalities in the history of the business. It was a valiant effort but it just didnt work.

The Von Erich family story is a pretty tragic one and the movie even touches on what has always thought to have been a curse on the family name although I was hoping for a bigger emotional hit than what was delivered. Maybe we're just too used to big, dramatic underdog sports stories that are built to hit all the right emotional buttons whereas this story is more of a reality check on that concept even if it does have a few uplifting threads woven in. For fans of sports entertainment, this is a must watch movie as it really takes a good, hard look at the harsh realities of a business built on bigger than life story telling and how hard it is to maintain any level of success.