‘The Iron Claw’: Zac Efron Is Unforgettable as a Wrestler Trapped Under a Father’s Crushing Expectations

Alci Rengifo

Sean Durkin’s “The Iron Claw” is more than a wrestling movie. It’s a haunted American drama, full of scarred family trees and crushing legacies. The sport itself is important, because it is the work that defines its subjects, who really did exist. The Von Erich brothers were a wrestling dynasty defined by achievement and the shocking, seemingly random tragedies that strike some families. Five of the six brothers would die before their father and only one remains alive to this day. Durkin, who has made two other excellent dramas about people more than plot, has no time to ponder the idea of curses. Instead, he envelops us in their lives defined by pushing physical and, more fatally, emotional limits.

The film opens in the 1950s when Fritz Von Erich (Holt McCallany) is a professional wrestler whose calling card in the ring is a movie dubbed “the iron claw.” Basically, he raises his hand into the air like a claw and gouges it into an opponent’s face. It’s not real but not without physical risks either. By the late 1970s Fritz is not in the ring anymore. Instead, he runs a wrestling outfit composed of his sons, the Texas-raised Kevin (Zac Efron), Kerry (Jeremy Allen White), David (Harris Dickinson) and Mike (Stanley Simons). Kerry was actually a skilled discus thrower who has now returned to wrestling after President Carter decided to boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in the USSR. Ironically, this means more competition for Kevin, who dreams of being a world champion. The brothers are always in a sense pitted against each other because of the expectations of Fritz, who ranks them and gives “tough love” a whole other meaning. 

Wrestling is a sport that has as many detractors as fans. It’s continuously mocked as fake, without its attackers taking into consideration the sheer effort required. Durkin’s approach is to contrast the emotional trials of the Von Erich brothers with the toll on their bodies. Zac Efron has famously pumped up to an impressive degree, no longer recognizable as the breezy heartthrob of his earlier days. He’s like a focused, walking teddy bear that only cares about doing well in this craft Fritz raised him on. He’s so out of the loop that when he meets his eventual wife, Pam (Lily James), she discovers he’s still a virgin during one of their dates. It’s almost astounding how nice these guys seem to have turned out as people, since Fritz runs the house like a wrestling barracks. Holt McCallany of Netflix’s “Mindhunter” has the required icy stare, unnervingly determined to push his sons to achieve what he couldn’t. Every torn muscle and close brush with a broken neck is taken with stride, because the boys can’t disappoint dad. Maybe the softer side came from their mother, Doris (Maura Tierney), a woman who somehow endures through all the testosterone storms.

Casting is crucial here because of the way each brother has his own identity. We find ourselves caring for them all, while recognizing their unique features. Jeremy Allen White, in his first major screen role since FX’s “The Bear,” is the moody one who blocks out his demons with a fatalistic drive that eventually ruins, literally, his insides. Harris Dickinson’s David is so easy going we’re surprised to see he could even be pushed into the ring. Stanley Simons’ Mike is even less of a prospect. He’s a natural rocker who wants to lead a band. Somehow he becomes a ferocious fighter, as they all do in their own way. But many of them find tragic ends through bodily harm and even suicide. Kevin seems to survive through pain and rage because he genuinely loves to wrestle. In the ring he’s like an artist paying attention to the quality of the presentation. He can’t escape Fritz’s pressures, but it’s the other brothers who seem truly coerced into the path.

Like many great family tragedies, “The Iron Claw” is piercing because of the human element. Fritz is not soulless. He does love his sons. We can see how wrenching every loss is to him. Some parents are sincere in their mistakes. Durkin’s films revolve a lot around family dynamics where dumb choices or simple cluelessness lead to pain. His impressive debut, “Martha Marcy May Marlene,” starred Elizabeth Olsen as a young woman who escapes a cult, only to stay with an older sister unable to comprehend the depths of her trauma. His criminally underrated 2020 film, “The Nest,” features Jude Law in one of his best recent performances as a man desperate to be rich without the actual wealth, who uproots his family to London with lies he would sincerely like to believe. Fritz seems powerless when one son after another spirals into an end that he knows is somehow, beneath the surface, connected to how they’ve been living. Is a world champion belt worth dying over? How many people go past the limit for a job, to win a race, to get that orchestra audition? On top of that is all of our baggage from home.

Durkin makes the wrestling world baroque and almost melancholic. Like Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler,” the glamor and carnival fun is traded in for a sobering glance at what can be a grueling lifestyle. Even if wrestling is more theater than, let’s say, boxing, it still requires particular physiques and talent. The fact that it is literally a show raises the stakes, because success can depend so much on how well you can entertain the audience, as opposed to simply knocking out your opponent. The wrestling scenes here are never just fun. Durkin and cinematographer Mátyás Erdély find a rugged sensuousness to capture what it’s like for two large bodies to clash in a ring. When Zac Efron walks into a locker room doused with sweat, it’s not meant to exploit his physique in some attractive way, but to put us in the shoes of someone grinding their body.

What takes the hardest toll is the psychological and emotional state of the brothers. “The Iron Claw” can be read as a title with many layers. It is the family’s signature move but it’s also what living under Fritz must have felt like. Like Durkin’s past films, a running theme is the dark side of the American dream. This is a country where the prime idea is that anyone can be anything they want to be, if they work for it. Fritz wanted his sons to have glory in their sport and was obsessed with pushing them there. When one of them does win a coveted title, the belt sits on the kitchen table like any other object. It’s never enough for the desires being channeled here into his offspring. Much of our society is fueled by that ethos. We’ll chase what we want right into the void.

“The Iron Claw” releases Dec. 22 in theaters nationwide.