The Iron Claw

The Iron Claw

Director ~ Sean Durkin

Writer ~ Sean Durkin

2024,

Stars ~ Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson

 

Perhaps expecting a telling of the all-wrestling Von Erich family to go the way of all tropey sports films, it was only when realising that Sean Derkin was directing that I became intrigued. Derkin’s ‘The Nest’ had a faintly off-kilter manner, a chill and distance and a sensibility for melodrama that felt more indie than mainstream that I prefer.

The target of ‘The Nest’ is a self-deluded, desperate charlatan of a father, and ‘The Iron Claw’ similarly ultimately lays the blame of constant tragedy at the feet of toxic masculinity, enabled by a distracted/indifferent mother. Holt MacCallany gives an excellent bristling and bullying turn as the patriarch that turns his family into a cult. Or, as Letterboxd commenter dylan troesken writes, “when your“family curse” is just the mere existence of your father”. Fritz's way is more manipulation and psychological shoving whilst he leaves the physical punishment to the ring (as far as the film goes).

 

The fights are brutish and there is no doubt that they that they bruise, no matter the camaraderie of the faux-adversaries behind the scenes. This is violence made family-friendly and almost huggable by the set-ups and pantomime, by the operatic depiction of machismo. But faking it hurts and Durkin leaves no doubt to that. All this is as expected, but these fights that you assume to be the fulcrum of the melodrama are not the peak moments, as damaging and ferocious as they are, for they are almost the backdrop for the wider family narrative (and relegated to montages at times, made necessary to pack in as much story as possible). It’s the family drama that dominates and it is here that Durkins’ way with melodrama is most at play.

  

The Von Erich brothers have a strong bond, despite and because of parental figures that seem to swing between poles of dominance and disinterest: we see them partying but not in the kegging jock way we are familiar with such films. Their closeness is rendered in vignettes as well as bouts. We know the tropes, so when one brother says he’s going for a ride during an emotional peak, we know the narrative rules, but we skip to the consequences. It’s in daddy’s disappointed glare. It’s in the striking scene where mom has a grief-stricken fashion crisis when she realises she is wearing the same black dress as last funeral. The film is full of such moments and if there is inevitably a skipping-stone narrative over the major points, it doesn’t dimminish the cumulative gut-punch.

And for sure, those that know that story might be disappointed with omissions, which defines these kinds of films. Indeed, the Letterboxd comments is dotted with accusations that the film is a soft on Fritz. If you didn’t know the story ~ and I didn’t ~ it’s a shock to learn that there was another wrestling brother that followed a similar path. In passing, Mark Kermode’s review mentions that Durkin omitted Chris because: how much tragedy can you take? And yes, it would feel like heavy-handedness, surely? I mean, you can’t sell all this as fiction, right? Indeed, but this additional detail only belies a pattern, not a curse, of something damaged and damaging. No supernatural curse here.

There is a quiet anger marinated in heart ache here. But it’s Zac Efron’s performance as a somewhat gentle giant Kevin that stands out, a stunning wrestler’s physique almost blocking out all else until the nuances shine through. All this tragedy culminates in a moment where he gets to truly stick the landing with a most singular instant heartbreaker of a line. Like ‘Past Lives’, another film where you don’t truly realise the emotional impact until the finale.