“The Iron Claw” Movie Review

I saw a movie called “The Iron Claw” on premiere night, Thursday night of December 21.

This movie is based on a true story about the Von Erich family.

They are well known to wrestling fans as a very famous wrestling family.

The father, Fritz Von Erich (real name Jack Adkisson) was a wrestler for many years and eventually became a wrestling promoter.

Many of his sons, Kevin, David, Kerry, Mike, and Chris Von Erich/Adkisson got into the wrestling business later on.

And for those that don’t know, many of the brothers suffer tragic passings.  Some would say this family was cursed.  Even the oldest son died very tragically as a very little boy.

This movie is definitely about all of this, but the movie mainly focuses on the family itself and their dynamic.

If you’re going into this expecting just wrestling or more of a documentary, you will not get that.

If you want to see documentaries about this, there are a few great ones you can see.  

There is wrestling in this for sure, but again, it’s more about the family.  And since it is a movie, there is only so much time.  So some aspects of the story are rushed, changed, or left out.

But all considering, coming from someone who knows this story pretty well and am a fan (I was able to see Kerry wrestle in 1991 when I was 8.), I think the filmmakers did a very good job with this movie.

And even if you’re not a wrestling fan or know nothing about this story, you can still enjoy it as a movie and story.

The actors are perfectly cast.  The locations are great.  For example, the recreation of the arena they wrestled at a lot and was more or less their main office looks pretty good, especially on the outside.

Some real footage is used in the background occasionally, which is a nice touch.  Kevin (the only Von Erich still alive) and his sons and some of the other kids in the family were involved in the behind the scenes of this, which is great.

Everyone will have their opinion and some I’m sure will complain about some people not being portrayed (Chris Von Erich is ignored completely, which I think is weird.) or portrayed right in it.

But as a fan, I think it was a well done movie.

Warning:  It is a sad story, especially later on.  So be prepared to cry or feel bad at times.  It’s quite the emotional rollercoaster.  But sadly, that’s the reality of this story.

But I recommend seeing this because it is a story that not everyone knows about.  I’m amazed it took this long for a movie to be made about this because it has movie written all over it.

Check it out and see for yourself.

Feel free to comment on this post.  I’d love to hear what everyone thinks about the movie or what they think about the real life story in general.