The Iron Claw (2023) - A Film Analysis

The Iron Claw (2023) tells the tragic story of a family of professional wrestlers that was widely popular throughout the 80s. 

Though pro-wrestling is not officially regarded as a sport, I believe the themes that this film touches on are very prominent in sports culture. 

The film touches on how athletes are often pressured into joining a certain sport or reaching a certain level, usually by their own parents. It also touches on how families’ expectations can lead athletes down a dark path, and in this case to their own demise. 

The film takes place between the late 1970s and early 90s. It is based on real events and recounts the story of the rise and sudden fall of the iconic Von Erich family that was renowned by pro-wrestling fans in Texas, and around the world. 

Superstitions are common in the world of sports. This film specifically covers the family and the infamous “Von Erich Family Curse” that was widely covered throughout the pro-wrestling industry at the time. 

The story goes that Fritz (Holt McCallany), the father of five boys; Kevin, David, Kerry, Mike, and Chris, changed his performance name from ‘Jack Adkisson’ to ‘Fritz Von Erich.’ This change looked to be a huge mistake in the long run, as with tragedy constantly striking the family, fans started to perceive that the family name had been cursed. 

Though the film omits information about why the family was ‘cursed,’ further research suggests that it may have been a punishment for Fritz, who had adopted the German last name to fit his character, which was a villainous Nazi in the 60s-70s. It was believed that his willingness to monetize such a genocide for a wrestling gimmick is what led to his family, who also wrestled under the last name, to be cursed. 

With this curse in mind, the film focuses on the family and how said curse affected the family. The film mainly takes place through the narration of Kevin (Zac Efron), the second oldest and last surviving brother of the Von Erich family. 

In one of the first scenes of the film, Kevin tells the viewer that the curse always loomed over the family, even as he was growing up. 

Kevin says, “Ever since I was a child, people said my family was cursed. - I don’t know if my brothers and I believed it back then. But bad things kept happening.” 

He continued, saying, “Mom tried to protect us with God, Pop tried to protect us with wrestling.” This is a very important quote from the film because it alludes to how the father taught the Von Erich brothers to handle hardships. 

The film’s story promotes using sports as a form of escape from the unfortunate hardships of life. Athletes often have different motivations for competing in sports. Some do it as a hobby, some do it as a distraction from problems at home. 

In this film, Kevin tells us that their family was fueled by the motivation of protecting themselves from ‘the curse.’ Continuing on from the quote I mentioned earlier, Kevin says "He said if we were the toughest, the strongest, the most successful, the absolute best… nothing could hurt us. I believed him. We all did. " 

This is right after the introduction scene where Fritz and his wife Doris (Maura Tierney) argue about him buying an expensive car without consulting her. Fritz justifies the purchase by promising that their struggles will be over soon once he wins the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) World Heavyweight championship. This is the first time the children, who are sitting in the backseat, hear their dad say the quote that would carry on with them for the rest of their lives. 

As I previously stated, family expectations can cause immense pressure to athletes, which proves to be true in this film. 

As the story fast forwards years later, the Von Erich kids are now grown up, with Kevin now following in his father’s footsteps as a wrestler. Fritz is now retired and is the owner of a Texas based wrestling company, World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) which ran events at the legendary Dallas Sportatorium.

Though Fritz was finding success as a wrestling promoter, he still held onto the grudge that he never won the NWA World championship. So when his sons become wrestlers, he sees this as an opportunity to redeem his own failures through his kids. 

When he negotiates a match for Kevin against the NWA champion at the time, Harley Race (Kevin Anton), Fritz tells him “I’ve dreamed of having that belt in this house my whole career. But the NWA never gave me the chance I deserved. I got close many times, but they always robbed me at the last minute. So you have to take this opportunity. You can be the one to bring it home for us.”

Unfortunately, Kevin lost the match, and slowly the support of his father. This began a constant cycle where Fritz would shift his support to the next brother to gain popularity, which at the time was David (Harris Dickinson), and thereby pit the brothers against each other.

However, the biggest victim of the dad’s pressure was Mike (Stanley Simons), who was rushed into becoming a wrestler by his father after the death of David and his brother Kerry (Jeremy Allen White) suffering a life-changing accident.

 Up until that point, it was clear to the audience that Mike’s dream was to be a musician. However, his father never approved and was persistent in pushing him to join his brothers. 

When Mike finally makes his wrestling debut, he suffers what is believed to be an injury. However, after going in for routine surgery, the doctor reveals that it was toxic shock syndrome that puts him in a coma. 

The lasting effect on Mike was suffering permanent brain damage that forced him out of the ring. To make matters worse, Mike was no longer physically able to play instruments as he once did, which led him to a dark path in which he takes his own life. 

The story constantly uses the theme of pushing through adversity, no matter what shape it comes in. Whether it be by opportunities being taken away, or a tragedy striking the family, Fritz constantly tries to motivate his sons to push through. 

Though in general this is great advice, Fritz constantly goes about it the wrong way, which one could argue led to the family’s demise. 

One of these examples is when Kerry gets his opportunity to compete in the Olympics taken away. Kerry found great success as a discus thrower for Lake Dallas High School’s track and field team, for which he still ranks third all-time in Texas 4A high school records. 

However, his plans to join the 1980 Summer Olympics team were cut short when President Jimmy Carter announced the U.S would boycott the Olympics in Moscow that year. This is when Fritz suggests that he consider training to become a wrestler. In the film, 

Fritz told Kerry, “Now, I wouldn’t wish wrestling on any of you. I only wrestled to provide for y’all, and I always hoped you boys would choose another profession. But the Olympics have been taken from you the way professional football was taken from me. The world keeps taking from us and I'm sick of it. I wanna fight back, and the more of us in it together, the better.”

As a result, Kerry became a wrestler and joined his brothers, finding success around the world. 

Though this scene showed that Fritz tried to teach his sons to keep moving forward no matter what obstacles are put in front of him, it also showed how much of a master manipulator he could be as well. The reason being that he claims that he always wanted to keep his kids away from wrestling, which based on the incident with Mike I mentioned earlier, the viewer learns to be a lie. 

Overall, this film is the perfect example of the dangers that putting your professional goals over your family can ultimately have. 

In this case, Fritz’s goals as a coach and a wrestling promoter made him forget his responsibility as a father. We see the tremendous bond between the Von Erich brothers, who thrived off of having each other around for support that their parents no longer provided.

The consequences of Fritz looking out for his own interests were the loss of five of his six sons, most of which could have been avoided had he been there for them as a father. 

The story of the Von Erichs is so tragic, that the creators of the film had to combine two of the real brothers’ (Chris and Mike) stories into one (Mike’s story) in order to cut down the runtime and not add any more gloominess than the film already had in telling the tragic ending of the Von Erich brothers. 

The film teaches us that no matter how big our professional aspirations may be, it is important to always remember to take care of yourself and your family first and foremost. If not, you could be putting someone’s or your own life at risk.