My Review of "The Iron Claw"

The Iron Claw is a tragic real life family tale. The movie just came out at the tail end of 2023. I'm a fan of wrestling but only of certain eras. I didn't know much about the Von Erich's until this movie came out. It's shocking too because this wrestling family had to go through so much in their lives that it's a crime for their story not to be told.

This movie starts off in the very beginning as their patriarch of the family, Fitz, is wrestling as an amateur wrestler. He's starting to make waves but never achieves his ultimate goal of being the NWA heavyweight champion. This would later haunt him and the rest of his family as the movie progresses.

The movie is centered around Fitz's second son Kevin but it explores the lives of the whole family. Kevin's older brother died tragically when he was very little but he does have three younger brothers. They are all extremely close with one another and the thing that ties them all together is wrestling.

This is a good thing and a bad thing. We immediately realize this is another time when Fitz pits each of the boys against each other for his love. He admits to having favorites and tells them that they can gain his love by doing things that will make him proud. This is a double edged sword because it's the motivating factor for their success. Ultimately it's also their downfall when all of them are trying to win the NWA heavyweight championship for their father.

It wasn't too long ago that parenting was just like this. I kind of grew up in a somewhat similar household. I can tell these were actual things that happened in real life. Surprisingly, all of the brothers still had tons of love for each other despite this competitive edge against one another. There is continuous love aimed at each other and they support each other despite feeling slighted.

This character development of each of the brother really makes it hard to watch when tragedy really hits them. It kind of hits you too hard in a very short span of time. To think that these brothers had to endure such trauma in such a short span of time is horrifying. How can anyone even handle this mentally? Well they didn't handle it well. Remember that the family is a product of its time. No one is communicating with one another and they are all bottling up their feelings. Everyone is ready to burst and you can sense that tension throughout the movie.

Fans of wrestling will enjoy the fact that they use some real wrestlers as reference throughout this movie. Some might be irked by some of the portrayals of famous older wrestlers. I know I had some problems. Although I think that the cast did a fantastic job with the material that they got I kind of felt like it was a little miscast.

I never felt the presence of larger than life characters playing these roles. It kind of felt like shorter people that were supposed to be really tall muscular people. Yes their physique is muscular because of their height it just made them look shorter compared to the rest of the ensemble cast. There was even an instance where they put up the stats of the wrestlers before they fought and in the ring it looked nothing like what it said it was supposed to be. Think of it like Tom Cruise playing Jack Reacher now that we have seen what Alan Ritchson did with the character.

It's a minor gripe but it did at times take me out of the movie. This is not really what the movie is about so I can let it go but it did feel really weird at points. Again the cast did a great job in their acting abilities it just felt off a little because of their physical height.

Overall, I loved this movie. It explored the psychological factors of growing up in this era and location in the USA. I felt empathy for all of the characters because they're all trying to do good in their own way but ultimately failed. The naivety of all of the characters gave them so much charm that I couldn't help but fall in love with all of them. I have to give this movie an 8 out of 10. I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a story about a very very tragic family.