The father of the Von Erich’s was portrayed as a complete motherfucker. This egomaniacal asshole passed on generational trauma as a badge of honor. Then again, it was a different time, a different socio-economic situation. In a way, you can’t help but feel for a man who taught his whole family crying was a sign of weakness.
There is a brutal and a bloody trail… droves of wrestlers dead before fifty, found in hotel rooms, heart attacks, overdoses, suicides, murder… Wrestling is anything but fake.
Putting their bodies on the line, ignoring injuries, abuse, all for a little bit of fame, and a shitty pay day, was part for the course for these men. Despite it all, they brought wrestling from obscurity to world-wide prominence and domination.
Iron Claw tells a tragic story of the Von Erich family. Some call it a family curse; But you add steroids, generational trauma, a family that was taught to ‘tough it out’, and you can see how most of the tragedy could’ve been prevented, if not all of it.
Don’t go into this movie without putting some boxing gear on. It sets you up with a bond of five close brothers, a rags-to-riches sort of story, and then it right-hooks you in the ass. Once you’re on the ground, it puts on a cross-face and keeps on wrenching despite you tapping.
Not every film does this. But, if you know you’re in for a tragedy, you can, at least, brace yourself.
We call sufficiently terrible car accidents ‘terrific.’ Iron Claw is that kind of terrific. It establishes everything right, and it delivers it without an apology.
That stories like this exist in the world is a tragedy. It’s a whole god damn genre! Do I like it? NO! I fucking hate how good Iron Claw was. I will not watch it again, but it’s worth a watch, a ‘terrific’ watch.
Six out of Six, blood-soaked toilet paper rolls.
