The Iron Claw Movie Review | Day 46 #theironclaw #wrestling #zacefron
12The Iron Claw is a 2023 biographical sports drama film written and directed by Sean Durkin about the Von Erichs, a family of professional wrestlers who are "cursed" by constant tragedy. The film depicts the struggles of wrestling company owner Fritz Von Erich's sons to achieve the success their father groomed them for, from 1979 to the early 1990s–resulting in more tragedy.
The film stars Zac Efron as Kevin Von Erich alongside Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson, Maura Tierney, Stanley Simons, Holt McCallany, and Lily James as other members of the family, and is titled after the "iron claw", an in-ring signature move of the Von Erichs.
plot:
In 1979, the World Class Championship Wrestling company (WCCW) is owned by retired professional wrestler Fritz Von Erich, who once dreamed of winning the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship. Fritz has five sons with his wife Doris, from oldest to youngest: Jack Jr., who died as a child, Kevin and David, who both wrestle in WCCW, Kerry, an aspiring discus thrower, and Mike, an aspiring musician. Kevin, the current Texas Heavyweight Champion, starts a relationship with a woman named Pam, and tells her about the "Von Erich curse" that killed Jack Jr. as a child, supposedly brought on by Fritz changing his last name from Adkisson to his mother's, whose family had suffered constant tragedy.
Kevin wins a non-title match against NWA World Heavyweight Champion Harley Race by disqualification, putting himself in the lead to challenge for the title. However, Fritz is disappointed that Kevin took a long time to get up after taking a vertical suplex directly on concrete, but is delighted by David displaying a natural talent for showmanship while cutting a promo. The 1980 Summer Olympics boycott dashes Kerry's hopes of competition, and he moves back home where Fritz presses him to also become a wrestler.
By 1983, Kevin, Kerry and David defeat the Fabulous Freebirds to win the Six-Man Tag Team Championship, and Fritz volunteers David over Kevin to fight current NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair. Kevin and Pam get married, and he reveals at the wedding to an ill David that he will soon be a father. A week before his match against Flair, David dies of enteritis while touring in Japan. Both Kevin and Kerry volunteer to fight Flair in his place, but Fritz lets a coin flip decide, resulting in Kerry being the one to face Flair–beating him and winning the World Heavyweight Championship. Although Fritz is overjoyed, a despondent Kerry goes out for a motorcycle ride and loses his right foot in an accident.
Fearing the curse, Kevin has his newborn son, Ross, legally surnamed Adkisson. Kevin begins training Mike, who badly injures his shoulder during a match and goes into a toxic shock-induced coma during surgery. Mike narrowly emerges from his coma with noticeable brain damage, but when Fritz presses him to get back in the ring, he takes his own life and a grief-stricken Kevin starts to distance himself from Pam and Ross; he nonetheless fights Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship but is disqualified when he ignores the referee and grapples Flair with the signature Von Erich "Iron Claw" move for too long.
Kerry returns to wrestling with a new prosthetic foot, and works for the World Wrestling Federation, now dwarfing WCCW in popularity, where he wins the Intercontinental Championship at SummerSlam, while Fritz gives Kevin the task of running the WCCW as he focuses on life with Pam, Ross, and newest son Marshall. Kerry gives Fritz a new gun for Christmas, but becomes upset when he puts it away instead of firing it, later calling Kevin and telling him that the curse's constant presence and his declining career have made him consider suicide. He hangs up before Kevin can learn his location. After calling Fritz for help but receiving none, Kevin arrives at Fritz's house the next morning just in time to hear Kerry commit suicide with the gun, and nearly strangles Fritz to death in a fit of rage. Sitting with his brother's body, Kevin has a vision of his brothers in the afterlife: Kerry leaves behind the coin that decided he would face Flair and reunites with Mike, now free to pursue his musical dreams, David wearing the world title belt he had been chasing in life, and Jack Jr., whom he meets for the first time since being a toddler.
Sometime later, Kevin sells WCCW to Jerry Jarrett despite his father's protests, Doris gives up her housewife duties for her hobby of painting and divorcing Fritz, and Pam becomes pregnant again. Kevin weeps while watching his sons play football, telling them he misses having brothers. They promise to be brothers to him, and he gets up and plays with them. A textual epilogue reveals that the Von Erichs were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2009, and that Kevin and Pam are still married and have bought a ranch in Hawaii, where their large family lives to this day, including their four children and thirteen grandchildren.
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