The most heartbreaking movie I have seen recently in cinemas in a long time. A biopic about a wrestling family Von Erichs called 'The Iron Claw’. The film follows the story of Fritz Von Erich, the father who encourages his sons Kevin (Zac Efron), David (Harris Dickinson), Kerry (Jeremy Allen White) and Mike (Stanley Simons) to become wrestlers and the challenges they face as a family in the wrestling industry.
The family based in Texas was allegedly known to be cursed as tragic events would take place affecting them eventually earning the name “Von Erich curse”. The director, Sean Durkin, physically missed out on one brother called Chris because they did not want to make the story seem repetitive through the tragic events, even though his true story event is tragically devastating, hence not making this a true biopic. This, in my personal opinion, irritated me because his story was just as (if not even more devastating) than the other brothers especially being the youngest and facing that immense amount of pressure of your other brothers succeeding.
Although not mentioned in the dialogue, their actions and expressions conveyed a clear message. The close-up zooms and sound design intensified the scenes, making them even more powerful. Even at times making it uneasy to feel settling into the scene of the scenario.
Certain characters present in scenes of the film but physically being blocked out by the frame showing the importance or the disregard of those characters creating a thrilling haunting effect to the storyline emotion. It was heartbreaking to see the children suffer and be unable to speak up against their father or to be heard by their mother. As even a problem does arise or they want to speak to her about it the film demonstrates her reasoning through religion.
Portraying both parents as conservative Christians. The father's dialogue often felt surface-level and explanatory, in contrast to the powerful performances of the sons. Zac Efron's portrayal of Kevin Von Erich, the eldest child, was exceptional.
How he not only had responsibilities for himself but also his family and made those life-deciding decisions regarding them. Efron could emotionally bring the character to life but also physically transform into him which must have taken a lot of stamina. Efron deserves an Oscar nomination for his performance and it was a shame this went unrecognised compared to other biopics nominations.
Although the film is about wrestling, it taught me more about performance. The choreography of the body language to not only entertain the audience but also us as the viewer seeing how ostentatious it is. Also performing in regards to succeeding in making the family proud as the lack of love and compassion provided is through the parents intrinsically and the children have to perform to earn their love and affection.
This was emotionally draining to see the physical and mental strain the sons had to go through and left me feeling extremely hollow.