The Iron Claw (2023)
★★★½ — The Iron Claw (2023)
There are stories that hit differently when you already know the ending. I went into The Iron Claw knowing the broad strokes of the Von Erich story, the Texas wrestling empire, the weight of expectation, the losses that piled up until they almost defied belief, because I've been in the wrestling world as a former performer. I thought that foreknowledge would blunt the impact. It didn't. This film still floored me.
What director Sean Durkin has made here is not really a wrestling movie, even if it's dressed in spandex and stadium lights. It's a family tragedy about what happens when a father's ambition becomes a son's burden, and then a curse passed down through generations. The Von Erichs didn't just suffer bad luck. They suffered the specific, suffocating pressure of being told they were destined for greatness, and then being destroyed by the pursuit of it. The film understands that distinction completely.
And it earns its emotional power almost entirely through performance. Zac Efron is excellent, genuinely, but it's Jeremy Allen White who stays with you long after the credits roll. His portrayal of Kevin Von Erich captures something rare: the quiet erosion of a man who loves his family desperately, who keeps absorbing grief and guilt and somehow keeps standing, not because he's strong, but because he doesn't know what else to do. The physical transformation alone is remarkable, but it's the pain behind the eyes that makes it. Every scene where he has to hold himself together while something else inside him breaks, White is extraordinary.
That said, I can't give this film a free pass on its decisions, because some of them genuinely bother me. The choice to cut Chris Von Erich from the story entirely is not a minor omission. Chris was central to the later years of the family's tragedy, and scrubbing him from the narrative creates a gap that feels dishonest. You can streamline a story for dramatic purposes, that's fair enough, but removing an entire person who actually lived and suffered and died? That crosses a line for me. It makes the film feel tidier than the truth was, and the truth was anything but tidy.
The film also glosses over so much of the texture of that world, the rivalries, the politics, the slow accumulation of smaller disasters that led to the larger collapse. Those of us who know the territory feel the gaps. And I was genuinely surprised by how many viewers are discovering for the first time that Kerry Von Erich wrestled his entire WWE run on one foot. Those of us in the business knew. The man was extraordinary. The film touches on it, but barely lingers.
Then there's the Ric Flair portrayal. I'll just say it plainly: it was a disaster. Flair is one of the most distinctive personalities in the history of professional wrestling, the mannerisms, the cadence, the sheer operatic swagger of the man. None of it was there. What we got was flat and forgettable, and in a film that otherwise takes its wrestling world seriously, that stuck out like a sore thumb.
But here's the thing. Despite all of that, The Iron Claw works. The emotional truth of the Von Erich story is captured better here than in any documentary I've seen on the subject, and that's no small achievement. The final act is shattering. I'm not exaggerating when I say I was sitting in silence for a few minutes after it ended, just processing. The film earns that reaction because it never lets the tragedy feel exploitative. It feels like grief that belongs to real people, handled with genuine care.
Three and a half stars.
It's flawed, and anyone who knows this story deeply will feel those flaws. But the performances alone make it essential viewing, and the heart of it is exactly right. Some burdens are too heavy for any family to carry. The Iron Claw makes you feel every tonne of that weight.
Rating: ★★★½ | Year: 2023 | Watched: 2025-08-09
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US
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