Kayfabe. Noun: (in professional wrestling) the fact or convention of presenting staged performances as genuine or authentic. “A masterful job of blending kayfabe and reality.”
We all just want to exist in a place where people love and care about us. This inspired by a true story does not feel like one of those places. It feels like kayfabe.
The Iron Claw (dir. Sean Durkin) is a story about the legendary wrestling family, the Von Erichs, the film centers around Kevin Von Erich (Zac Efron) but the whole film is dominated by the presence of the father, Fritz Von Erich (Holt McCallany).
The family name was Adkisson but Fritz changed his name from Jack Adkisson to Fritz Von Erich as part of his wresting gimmick to portray a nazi heel (a heel is the term for the bad guy in wrestling, the good guy is the face). The Von Erichs were believed to be cursed and it was known as the Von Erich Curse.
Fritz played the kayfabe hard. He never broke character, or maybe he was never Jack but always Fritz. This domineering man raised his boys to only care about being the best, and this is what Kevin was raised into. He desired to be the heavyweight wrestling champion of the world.
He had all the physical chops but didn’t have the linguistic dexterity that was needed, but this is what family are for. The brothers, David (Harris Dickinson) and Kerry (Jeremy Allen White) had his back, both in and out of the ring.
The brothers loved each other and wanted to spend time with each other while making their father proud. The issue is that Fritz would never break Kayfabe, there was no distinction between the character in the ring and the human beings outside of it.
Pam (Lily James) brought depth and humanity to Kevin’s experience. Showing him that people can care about him for him and not what character he plays. This challenged his understanding of how he was meant to treat his father, the head of the family.
The matriarch Doris (Maura Tierney) is a powerful force in the family and on screen. Walking a fine line between being a dutiful wife and a caring mother, and it is the 70’s in Texas so those lines are very specific.
The brutal nature of the relationship between Fritz and the boys mirrors the brutal nature of the ‘fake’ fighting in the wrestling ring. Efron gives it his all but his haircut and new jaw look ridiculous. He has said he fell over and had to get surgery on his jaw and has denied any performance-enhancing agents. He might not have taken any secret sauce as it were, but you would be forgiven for thinking he might have had a little sriracha on his chicken wings.
I want to use the word brutal again, it is a brutal story, it feels like misery porn, horrible things after horrible things keep happening to Kevin and his family. Lily James is great and Efron puts in a strong performance. The brothers all have a wonderful bond and appear to enjoy being around each other despite the ‘curse’. The shows that we all want to be loved, but sometimes we have to make better choices of who we want to love us. Unfortunately, we aren’t all given that chance or that choice.
21st January 2024
Luke McMeeken-Ruscoe