Mike at the Movies: Tragedy, Depth and Family Saga Mark “The Iron Claw”

Photo courtesy of A24 Films.

by MIKE ORLOCK

In my younger and more vulnerable years (to shamelessly “borrow” from F. Scott Fitzgerald), I went to high school with Randy “Macho Man” Savage. His brother “Leapin’ Lanny” was there, too, but he was in another class. Randy wasn’t the “Macho Man” then, he was Randy Poffo; and although I knew his father – Angelo Poffo was a professional wrestler of some repute – Randy was more interested in baseball, perfecting his skills as a catcher with major league aspirations, than in developing the persona that would bring him fame and fortune in the World Wrestling Federation. 

I don’t know how much influence his father might have had in getting Randy to swap one sport for the other. Maybe the decision was a no-brainer: the Cincinnati Reds, the franchise he signed a minor league contract with, was in its glory as “The Big Red Machine” at the time and anchored by Johnny Bench, arguably the greatest catcher in the game. Regardless, Randy soon was sporting gemstone sunglasses and spangly Speed-o shorts and mugging it up with Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant in wrestling events around the world, until injury forced retirement and a heart attack killed him at age 58.

I was thinking about my former classmate while watching The Iron Claw (R), a terrific family drama that uses the sport of wrestling as the context for the cruelty and manipulation people inflict upon those they love and cherish the most. This is a wrestling movie cut from the same rough cloth as 2008’s The Wrestler, which gave Mickey Rourke an opportunity to strut his stuff in a role that earned him an Oscar nomination: in other words, if you’re a devotee of the billion-dollar buzz machine that is the WWE, this is as far from the hyped-up glitz and glamor of Wrestlemania as you are likely to get.

The Iron Claw tells the tragic story of the Von Erich family, a Texas clan of four brothers whose lives are rigorously controlled and ultimately destroyed by their father “Fritz,” a man so obsessed with achieving his version of the American Dream that he will do anything to be recognized as a champion.

Fritz, played by veteran character-actor Holt McCallany in a career performance, was a second-tier wrestler on the Texas circuit whose signature move was “the Iron Claw” – a death grip guaranteed to finish off opponents. Fritz hoped his move would win him the belt. Instead, it consigned him to the villain role in the ring, and that frustration is taken out on his family.

The family consists of wife Doris (Maura Tierney), who has learned to suffer her husband in silence, and sons Kevin (Zac Efron), Kerry (Jeremy Allen White), David (Harris Dickinson), and Mike (Stanley Simons). The brothers are fiercely devoted to each other, and their father uses that bond as a tool to coach them into careers that he will control completely. He even posts a list of who his favorite son is each week, as motivation to work harder, push further and sacrifice more. When Kevin starts dating a local girl (Lily James), whom he ultimately marries, he finds himself out of favor with dear old dad, who punishes him by yanking a title match out from under him. When Mike finds some fulfillment playing guitar with a local rock band, Dad pulls the plug on his music career.

What happens to these brothers is tragedy to a Shakespearean degree, but writer-director Sean Durkin (Martha Marcy May Marlene) knows how to pull his punches. It helps that he gets award-worthy performances from his cast, especially one-time Disney prince Zac Efron, whose performance is a revelation, and Jeremy Allen White (best known for his role in the Hulu hit The Bear). The physical transformation that each had to undertake in preparation for playing professional wrestlers is one thing; the emotional depths they reveal underneath all that musculature is another. They help make The Iron Claw more than just a sports biopic, but a family saga in the rich tradition of the Corleones. 

Currently in theaters, but expect the film to stream sometime in the near future on Max. 
In another lifetime, Mike Orlock wrote film reviews for the Reporter/Progress newspapers in the western suburbs of Chicago. He has also taught high school English, coached basketball and authored three books of poetry. He finished his two-year term as Door County’s poet laureate in early 2023.