Life is one long performance for the Von Erichs – widely known as one of the most pedigreed families in American wrestling during the 1970s and 1980s.
Early on in Sean Durkin’s The Iron Claw (2024), we see Fritz Von Erich (Holt McCallany) showing off his brand-new Cadillac to his wife Doris (Maura Tierney), something he clearly can’t afford. “The bosses say I need to start acting like a star before I become one,” the husband tells his pregnant wife and two sons. Years later, the eldest son Kevin (Zac Efron) can be seen squirming on a concrete floor, trying to get back on his feet with seconds left on the clock while battling the most excruciating pain. Kerry (Jeremy Allen White) exhibits extreme masochistic tendencies, as he forces himself to run with his new prosthetic leg, wincing in pain every few steps. And in one of the most chilling scenes in the film, when Kevin finds David (Harris Dickinson) vomiting blood in a bathroom stall, he quips they should cancel his trip to Japan. Seconds later, both Kevin and David burst out laughing, fully aware that it’s not an option.
The facade of being able to endure inhuman pain is something that’s ingrained into Von Erichs from an early age. A middle-class, suburban family living in Texas, striving for the American dream, Kevin keeps hearing how his family name is cursed. His parents lost their first-born, Jack Jr, at the age of five. However, the patriarch instils a rigorous (arguably pathological) work ethic in his sons, telling them that they can out-work this ‘curse’ others seem to be talking about.
One of the towering achievements of Durkin’s film is how it humanises the conservative, ‘red-state’ family at its centre. Seeing them depicted as either cartoonishly upbeat, jolly good fellows or just outright evil, few mainstream films have tried to investigate the unnerving silences in this part of America. Like where the sons are instructed to take off their sunglasses at a brother’s funeral, and expressly told to not shed any tears. Or when the father wordlessly stares at the Democratic establishment boycotting the 1980 Summer Olympics in USSR for their invasion of Afghanistan. There’s also a moment when Kevin tries to speak with his mother, about their father’s attitude towards his youngest son Michael (Stanley Simons) because he doesn’t show any inclination towards wrestling, and instead pursues his love for music.
Like in his earlier directorial features – Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) and The Nest (2020) – Durkin’s restraint in The Iron Claw too, is masterful. In a scene right before a head-on collision, cinematographer Matyas Erdely places the camera near the front-wheel of a speeding motorbike, providing it with a visceral, foreboding energy. And then it cuts to black, with viewers finding out about the devastating consequences of the accident only in the next sequence. It’s this economy ensuring that Durkin is respectful of the tragedy, without mining it for tears and/or hysteria.
Durkin assembles a terrific bunch of actors to play members of the Von Erich family. Zac Efron – a decade and a half since being a Disney heartthrob – is a revelation. Kevin is the audience’s eyes and ears as he goes from being the dutiful eldest son to a broken, haunted elder brother. It’s a tremendously physical performance, where Efron says more with his shrugs and nerves, as much as by throwing his body in the ring. Jeremy Allen White, who had his breakout moment in 2022 series The Bear (co-incidentally, where he’s also playing a bereaved brother), is searing as Kerry, singlemindedly trying to be the best son for his insatiable father, until he no longer can. A phone call between Kerry and Kevin is one of the most emotionally naked scenes I’ve seen recently.
Amongst all this testosterone, sweat, blood and muscle are the film’s only two female actors – Doris and Kevin’s wife, Pam (Lily James). Lurking in the shadows for a majority of the film’s 134-minute runtime, both Doris and Pam get a couple of scenes where their agency is hinted at. However, the acting accolades belong to McCallany – playing the steely, unrepentant patriarch of the Von Erichs – where he ‘believes’ in his mythology so fiercely that even the loss of a loved one does nothing to change him. What could’ve been a single-note monster, instead comes off as someone drunk on the ideals of American individualism. A case could be made for how Fritz Von Erich fancies himself as a glory-seeker, using his children’s bodies as fuel to make his place in the promised land of American wrestling. This reflects in Durkin’s choice to dwell on people’s delusions driving them way beyond their breaking point and their children’s well-being.
The Iron Claw is a cautionary tale for when families become cults, and patriarchs start acting like Gods. Its title is derived from a wrestling move adopted by Von Erich Sr., which became a signature move for his sons too, where a wrestler gets hold of his opponents’ temple and digs his fingers and nails into their skull, forcing them to tap out of a fight. The title turns into a metaphor for Von Erich’s grip on his family and how they think. Durkin – whose 2011 directorial debut followed the journey of a girl (a young Elizabeth Olsen) escaping the traumas of an abusive cult – is again patient and observant while piecing together a family portrait blown to pieces by generational values. The film seems to understand that being in a cult is like being held in a headlock by someone significantly stronger. Only some have enough clarity to tap out.
