The Iron Claw – Film Review
by Frank L.

Director – Sean Durkin
Writer – Sean Durkin
Stars – Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson

Sean Durkin, who also wrote the script, is quoted as saying “I’m attracted to fear. I’m attracted to movies that scare you”. Here he has created a film that looks at the world created by Fritz von Erich (Holt McCallany) and his dominant relationship with four of his sons Kevin (Zac Efron), David (Harris Dickinson), Mike (Stanley Simons) and Kerry (Jeremy Allen White). It is based on a true story.

Fritz was a wrestler and was determined that his own sons would follow in his footsteps, and be the “strongest” and the “toughest”. He was famous for his grip, called “The Iron Claw”. His ambitions for them knew no bounds and he drives each of them way beyond their comfort zones in the pursuit of dominance which will always be inadequate for Fritz.  He is passively supported in this endeavour by his dutiful wife Doris (Maura Tierney) who finds her inner calm through a formulaic religiosity having discarded her initial creativity as an artist.  Each of the sons lived in fear of Fritz. Sadly for each, they are part of a first-class-honours-degree family of dysfunction. The film tracks the various resultant catastrophes that befall each of the four. However, for some unspecified reason, Durkin omits entirely another son Chris from the script.

McCallany and Tierney have to play very different roles but his aggressiveness and her passiveness create the perfect cocktail of circumstances that will unleash the destructive forces that surround their four depicted sons. Both of them are entirely credible in their handling of this husband and wife relationship which seems to have no point of contact other than to conceive sons.

Efron, Dickinson, Simons and White have to create different characters. However, each of the characters has a similarity from which only Kevin and Mike manage to deviate at all. All of them are downtrodden by Fritz in different ways. The cinemaphotography of the very many wrestling scenes is not for the faint-hearted. Durkin’s fascination with fear is to the fore throughout and he is adept at drawing out the fear which each of the four sons has for Fritz.

Director Sean Durkin has made a name for himself in recent years with a series of very impressive releases including Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) and The Nest (2020). This work is quite a step away from what came before.

This is an extreme example of a family which has an out-of-control, overbearing father. In that regard, it is not a unique phenomenon, although fortunately, few families have endured such a catastrophic legacy. It is a grim story well told and acted. It is worth seeing as a warning to any parent who chooses to live vicariously through their children.