The most successful pro wrestlers have a great hook. It’s something that draws the love, the hatred, and more importantly, the attention of a crowd.
Early on in his career, Jack Adkisson had some good moves, but no hook. So he developed a match-ending, massive-hand-to-an-opponent’s-face grip that the audience kind of liked. But … it still wasn’t enough. Then he pushed things across the line by changing his name, picking up his grandmother’s maiden name: Von Erich.
I mean, in the mid-1960s a guy named Adkisson could fade easily into the woodwork. But a former Nazi named Fritz Von Erich, who possessed an incredible “Iron Claw” move, that guystood out andgrabbed attention!
Fritz was soon feared. Fritz was hated. But most of all, Fritz was watched.
Problem was, Fritz was a “villain” who could never take the National Wrestling Association championship. They would never allow him into those lofty ranks.
So, Fritz started his own association.
The WCCW, or World Class Championship Wrestling, was nowhere near as big of a fish tank as the NWA. But in the state of Texas, Fritz and his wrestlers were whales.
Next, the now-older Fritz decided to make his creation even bigger with a simple plan. He’d step back from thumping about in the ring and let his growing crew of sons take the stage.
With the right amount of training, the right amount of muscular pressure, the rightly enforced weightlifting, the proper steely resolve, he could pound his boys into the chiseled physical specimens that he always wanted to be.
After all, they were handsome, large, talented, and fast. And better yet, they didn’t have to be cast as anything less than All-American, red, white and blue heroes. In fact, when Fritz started setting them up in team matches, the Texas crowds couldn’t get enough!
Soon, the NWA was taking notice. ESPN was knocking on his door. Fritz was on the brink of grabbing the gold ring of his dreams. He just had to push the boys a little harder.
Problem is, even the most tempered steel can break under enough pressure.
And flesh and blood are nowhere near as resilient as steel.
Even though The Iron Claw is a movie about the whole Von Erich clan, Kevin Von Erich (played by Zac Efron) carries the protagonist role here. We see his father, Fritz, and the rest of the family from his perspective. The difficulties and broken failings of his family impact him profoundly. They ultimately push him to become a better husband and father himself.
In fact, for all of the Von Erich family’s disfunction, Kevin and his brothers all consistently love one another. Even when they compete against one another, they never relinquish that mutual respect. Kevin repeatedly goes above and beyond in an attempt to care for and protect his siblings. And that loving commitment to family plays a key part of this film’s resolution, which stresses that the simple joys of a close loving family are far more important than fame and ambition.
Kevin also meets and eventually marries Pam. She becomes a stabilizing force in his life, helping him think through and balance his priorities. Together, the two make it through horrible situations and work toward mutual goals.
Early on, Kevin talks to Pam about the Von Erich family “curse.” The idea of that family curse took shape after his father adopted the Von Erich name (and his “Nazi” persona,); soon after that, the eldest son, Jack Jr., died in a tragic accident. With each successive death and tragedy, Kevin keeps bringing up his fear of the curse. He even gives his son the family’s former Adkisson surname in an attempt to avoid any ill effects of the curse.
Pam, however, makes it clear that “I don’t believe in curses, and I don’t believe in luck!”
About the curse, Kevin says: “Mom tried to protect us with God. Pop tried to protect us with wrestling.” Indeed, Kevin’s mom, Doris, is the person who pushes the family to go to church each Sunday. We see her silently praying a few times. And there’s a small crucifix hanging in the living room wall in their family home. The only time that Fritz brings up God is while telling his sons not to cry at a funeral, saying the death was “God’s timing.”
At one point, Kevin encourages a scared brother, telling him that God loves him.
By movie’s end, Kevin imagines a deceased brother who pays a coin to be ferried across a lake in a rowboat. (We don’t see who’s rowing the boat.) He meets up with family members on an opposite shore and they all embrace.
We see Kevin and Pam kissing on several occasions before they marry. The two slip away from a party and have sex in Kevin’s truck. (She straddles him and hikes her skirt. But both remain dressed.)
Kevin, his brothers, and a variety of other wrestlers hit the ring shirtless, dressed in tiny wrestling shorts. We see Kevin several times in nothing but undershorts. (Once while in bed, rubbing his wife’s pregnant abdomen.) While in a locker room, the camera captures sight a large man in the shower in the background. We see his naked back and backside.
In another scene, one of Kevin’s brothers masturbates in the shower (shown from the waist up). Bikini girls swim and play at a local lake party. During a wedding Fritz and Doris slip away to get intimate while their house is empty.
It’s clear that much of a given wrestling match is choreographed in advance, and that many punches are obviously pulled. Still, the large wrestlers involved tend to get pummeled and bloodied at every turn. Men are viscerally struck, kicked, hit in the crotch and beaten about the upper body. A man’s forehead and hairline are left covered in blood after a match.
In the midst of one match, Kevin’s opponent indicates that he wants to change the script and throw him out of the ring, and the two take their staged battle out onto a concrete floor. Kevin is then flipped up and thrown violently to his back on the stone auditorium floor. He is visibly injured and barely able to drag himself upright before being kicked several times to the ribs.
We also see Kevin’s brother Mike fall to the canvas and break his shoulder. He writhes in agony, and he’s then carried off. We later hear that he required surgery and went into a toxic shock syndrome-induced coma in the hospital. He comes out later with what appears to be a form of brain damage that effects his speech and movement.
Someone loses a foot after a motorcycle accident. We don’t see the accident, but we do later see his heavily scarred bare back as he hobbles around with one foot. He then painfully tries to keep wrestling with a prosthetic limb.
Someone gets violently ill in a public toilet, vomiting what appears to be blood. We learn that he later died from a ruptured intestine. Another character commits suicide by shooting himself in the chest (just off-camera). We’re quickly shown the bloody wound before the body is picked up and carried off.
The brothers fight on occasion, knocking one another down angrily. Kevin knocks someone down and nearly chokes the man out before stopping himself. We see Kevin and others visibly straining under heavy weights in an effort to pump up their muscular bodies.
The dialogue includes some eight f-words and a couple of s-words. We also hear several uses each of “b–tard,” “d–n,” “h—” and “b–ch.” God’s and Jesus’ names are misused a total of five times (three of which are a combination of God and “d–n”).
Kevin and his family members drink beer at several meals and a picnic. We also see a room of partygoers drinking beer from red Solo cups, as well as people drinking beer at a wedding reception. Fritz and Kevin drink glasses of whiskey while discussing something important.
When the brothers head out on tour together, the beer and alcohol floodgates open. They and other wrestlers drink booze, snort coke, and pop pills. After a bad accident, Kevin’s brother Kerry crushes prescription pills and snorts them. One of the brothers also injects himself with what might be steroids.
Someone commits suicide via a fistful of pills washed down with beer. Fritz smokes cigarettes.
Fritz verbally lists his sons in descending order from his favorite. But he tells one of the boys at the bottom of his list that “the ranking can always change.” The man tends to stay emotionally separated from all his progeny, even refusing to get involved when one of them is considering suicide.
In fact, neither of the boy’s parents are particularly good at their parental job. One son approaches Doris, for instance, and asks if he can talk with her. “That’s what your brothers are for,” she replies.
After meeting Pam, Fritz talks about her as if she is a possession: “Put that down, and somebody else’ll pick it up.” Kevin’s underage brother, Mike, sneaks out of the house to go to a party after being told that he can’t go. Mike’s brothers aid him in his escape.
The Iron Claw is an American tragedy based on a true story. Writer/director Sean Durkin and crew attempt to make this heartbreaking tale more palatable with well-acted characters and musings on the Von Erich wrestling family “curse,” but at its core this is still a pic packed with sad and terrible things. As such, it’s not the most enjoyable two hours you’ll ever spend.
However, those who love the bitter taste of hard failings and painful human experiences chased with an enlightened moment of clarity will definitely get their money’s worth. For my two cents, the last five cathartic minutes of this movie are its best.
Getting to that short lesson and resolution point, though, isn’t an easy trek. This R-rated film treads a thorny path of emotional cruelty, hard physical calamities, foul language, drug abuse, mounting rage and disheartening suicide.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
