The only thing I knew about this movie when I first heard about it was that it was about wrestling. Like WWE wrestling. That made me immediately not interested in seeing it. Not only do I not care about wrestling, I actively dislike it. Any kind of physical fighting like that, boxing, MMA, anything in a ring where there’s punching and blood, is not enjoyable for me to watch and just makes my stomach turn (I’m just a girl after all!). But then I saw people online talking about the story. The real story. Of these brothers and of this family. That’s a story I could get on board with. Are sports movies ever really even about the sports anyway? Once I had decided to see the movie, I purposely didn’t look up anything about the real-life story beforehand. All I had heard was that it was sad.

Spoiler alert: it was! It was really sad. At first, I thought the film would end up being a family drama masquerading as a sports movie, but it is really more of a tragedy than a drama. The Iron Claw tells the true story of the Von Erich family, four brothers in Texas being raised and trained to be pro wrestlers by their father, Fritz, who was a former star. In a way, wrestling is inherently a show of masculinity. It is all about strength and toughness. But toxic masculinity is starting to become an overused trope these days. The movie does illustrate it in some ways, like how the boys aren’t allowed to show, express, or discuss emotions or feelings in any way. But those are also symptoms of their conversative, religious, southern household in the 1980s. Not just a product of their involvement in wrestling. Where this movie goes further than previous explorations of toxic masculinity is in combining it with another hot button topic of the moment: generational trauma.

Zac Efron’s character, Kevin Von Erich, the oldest (asterisk on that) brother tells Lily James’s character, Pam, on their first date about the “Von Erich curse”. Evidently many people think the family is cursed with bad luck following a history of tragedy. The movie then becomes about the curse. And the more bad things happen, the more we start to believe it might be true. We see the members of the family also deal with this idea hanging over their heads in different ways (pretty much all bad ways but different from each other). But is it really a curse or just a belief in a false god? What I mean is, these kids worship their father. They both fear and revere him. They want to make him proud. They want to be his favorite (which Fritz makes very clear that he does have when he ranks them at the breakfast table). They want to “bring honor to the family”. They were raised on these ideals their entire lives and now, as adults, are trying to live them. The problem is they will never be able to live up to the standards Fritz set for them. Even winning the title belt is not enough because what Fritz really wants deep down is to have won it himself. He never had the chance to do it so now he’s using his children to live out his dream. And while they care more about pleasing him than winning for themselves, Fritz cares more about winning than any of his kids’ health or happiness. He will do anything to ensure their success because he feels like it will mean his own. 

And THAT is the real curse upon this family. The hyperfixation of one man on a specific goal that has now been passed down to his children. The belief that that goal comes before anything else in the world. The pain and suffering they all have to endure to try to achieve that goal. And the feeling that there is no way out. To choose a different path, to care about anything else other than this goal, would mean exile from the family. And while Fritz cares about the title belt above all else, the thing that means the most to the boys is family. Kevin also tells Pam on their first date that he doesn’t care what he’s doing as long as it is with his brothers.

 “Generational trauma” is basically just modern psychology speak for “family curse”. Fritz was traumatized by never achieving his goal and passed that trauma on to his children and the aggression he uses to seek it manifests itself in extremely negative ways within the family. And like all trauma and curses, the only way out is to break the cycle. The movie’s take on the subject isn’t quite so intellectual (my psychology major is showing) but rather much more subtle and human. Honestly, for such a tragic story, I expected to cry more. But the movie picks and chooses where to really go for the feels and when to be more detached. After so much catastrophe and sadness, you may start to just feel numb to it all. But when it does let you feel all the emotions, it really goes for it. The last scene of the movie is a full on gut punch that absolutely broke me.

The roles of the Von Erich brothers are hard to portray because you have to show emotion without showing emotion a lot of the time. It’s been said before but I’m continuing the conversation here: Zac Efron Oscar campaign (a nomination this year at least, I don’t think he’d have a chance to win). Obviously I am a longtime Zac Efron supporter. But it’s been like 20 years since High School Musical and I feel like the majority of people don’t take him seriously as an actor because he came from Disney. He proved his comedic chops in Neighbors and he definitely proved his dramatic chops in this movie (also he can sing and dance so what else do people want from him?). He is legitimately good in this in an extremely moving and powerful performance in which he also happens to actually look like The Hulk (I have to admit that part was a little distracting). Someone who I was not surprised to see that they gave a good performance was Jeremy Allen White. Not much else to say, he’s just always good! I think he just has such an interesting face, it always looks like he has a lot on his mind, which works for many of his characters. Harris Dickinson as another one of the brothers is definitely up-and-coming right now and continues to prove himself with performances like this. His role was a little less moody and a little more charming than the others and he brought that charisma. 
The Iron Claw is a sad story but it’s told really beautifully in this movie. It’s a world and a real-life family I knew nothing about, but emotions and connections I could still feel. Those aspects are universal. The acting performances are special and make it feel real. This one seems to be flying a little under the radar but I would recommend it to anyone!

2024 Count: 1 season, 2 movies