Alex Wheeler Movie Ops

The Iron Claw opens with disjointed shots of Zac Efron’s body. You see immense muscles and veins that stretch to cover unnaturally large distances. Any voyeuristic or sexual implications are absent. This is meat, pummeled into its current form, a sculpture with no delicacy behind it.

Perhaps it’s impossible to cast an actor who hasn’t been intensely ogled by the camera, but shots like this stand in stark contrast to the notably seductive films the three men playing the central Von Erich brothers have been a part of. Efron went from teen idol to box office superstar on the back of a hulking physical transformation. Jeremy Allen White is white hot thanks to The Bear and all those perfectly fitted t-shirts. Even Harris Dickinson, by far the least known of the three, broke out with the gorgeous Beach Rats. Their onscreen pasts and the nature of the industry tell us to look at these men a certain way, but everything about The Iron Claw points us in a different direction. The opening shot nods to this being a purposeful choice. The rest of the film, which portrays the slow tragedy of the Von Erich brothers, drives it home.

The boys were following in the footsteps of their father, a professional wrestler, who pushed them into the family business. He wasn’t a monster, but he was cold, just like their mother. Deprived of emotional support, the boys learned to look out for each other in this subtly but unmistakably toxic environment, and for a time they made each other into some of the biggest stars in the business. Dickinson’s David was in the lead-up to a title fight when an intestinal rupture killed him in a hotel room halfway around the world. The rest of the film is a methodical repetition of the tragedy, not in circumstance but in feeling. Loneliness, debilitating physical injuries, and the strange nature of wrestling’s performance catch up to the emotionally boyish Von Erichs, who were taught that physical strength would be all they need in the world.

This movie is boy sad. It’s about how men yearn for the emotional connections that American culture denies us. It’s about the way we aren’t taught how to ask for it, or worse to push down the need entirely. And then it’s put on steroids and all the other drugs the Von Erichs had in the 1980s wrestling world, and it becomes a perfect encapsulation of the long-known and never-addressed tragedy.

What makes The Iron Claw stand apart is its peculiar reserve. The tragedies that befall the Von Erichs come not with a punch but a whimper. They are telegraphed, inevitable, and steady. The boys are on a path they never veer from, like soldiers marching into a deadly fray, heads held high from ingrained duty.

This doesn’t make for the most emotionally vibrant film, and it puts a lot of work on Efron, who plays the oldest (living) brother, Kevin. The eldest died in a boyhood accident, and there are rumors this marked a family curse moving to his generation. Kevin begins the film by flippantly dismissing the notion, but as events stack up the explanation becomes more appealing. I mean, what are his other options? To see the carnage for what it is? To carry some blame and place the rest on loved ones and a world he is still intricately tied to?

What emotion the film contains is mostly relegated to this dilemma, and Efron plays it with subdued precision. The final scene (the film’s only sucker punch), relies almost entirely on him wordlessly processing this choice, and it’s a devastating piece of work.

In the film’s middle, though, there’s great uncertainty over whether the reserve will pay off, and restless minds may wander. Even walking out, there’s a sense that events should’ve been felt more deeply, that the approach got in the way of a good story. I knew nothing about the Von Erichs going in. Walking out, I was convinced they were a grand American tragedy. But I was never stopped in my tracks by their devastation.

America hasn’t stopped, though, and neither has the remaining Von Erichs. So perhaps its marching nature is a truth. It’s not the most narratively satisfying, but who says films must be? They are an art form, after all, and they exist for reasons well beyond entertainment. The Iron Claw makes a clear-eyed observation about the Von Erich story, and perhaps fittingly, it’s only partially felt.

Release: Available now in theaters
Director: Sean Durkin
Writers: Sean Durkin
Cast: Zac Efron, Harris Dickinson, Jeremy Allen White, Lily James, Stanley Simons, Holt McCallany, Maura Tierney