Zac Efron, Harris Dickinson, Lily James and The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White star in the film about the Von Erich wrestling family.
*WARNING: Includes major spoilers for The Iron Claw**
There are several reasons why The Iron Claw is one of the most hotly anticipated UK film releases of 2024.
It boasts an incredible cast including the likes of Zac Efron, Harris Dickinson, Lily James and The Bear‘s Jeremy Allen White, its director Sean Durkin has a stellar track record including films Martha Marcy May Marlene and The Nest and the TV show Dead Ringers, and it has already received rave reviews following its US release at the tail end of 2023.
Another reason for the anticipation is that the film is based on a fascinating but tragic true story, telling of the rise and extremely dramatic fall of the Von Erich family, who made waves in the world of wrestling during the 1980s.
Intrigued? Read on for everything you need to know about the true story behind The Iron Claw – but be warned that there are major spoilers for the film ahead.
Is The Iron Claw based on a true story?
Yes, the film tells the true story of Texas NWA Heavyweight Champion Kevin Von Erich (Efron) and his four brothers, chronicling their rise to the top of the professional wrestling world in the early ’80s and their subsequent downfall.
The brothers were the sons of Fritz Von Erich, who was himself a wrestler and had been determined for them all to thrive in the sport – but, although they did end up achieving considerable success, it came at great cost in their personal lives.
A series of family tragedies saw four of the five brothers – David (Dickinson), Mike (Stanley Simons), Chris (who does not appear in the film) and Kerry (White) – tragically pass away between 1984 and 1993, the former as a result of enteritis and the other three by suicide, leaving Kevin as the only surviving brother.
Speaking ahead of the film’s release, writer/director Durkin explained why he chose not to include Chris in the film, despite him being in the script for the first five years of its development, suggesting that one more death would perhaps make the movie too much for audiences to stomach.
“There was a repetition to it, and it was one more tragedy that the film couldn’t really withstand,” he told The LA Times. “I honestly don’t know if it would have gotten made.”
Meanwhile, ahead of production on the film, Kevin Von Erich met Efron and endorsed both his portrayal and the film as a whole.
Although The Iron Claw is based on a true story, it is a dramatisation rather than a completely faithful retelling, and as well as the absence of Chris, there are various other historical inaccuracies and omissions in the film – including the fact that Fritz and his wife Doris actually split up in real life.
In the aforementioned LA Times interview, Durkin explained why he opted to make changes from events as they really happened.
“When you’re trying to get a film made, you have to separate it at some point and say, ‘These are characters on a page, and this is a film, and there’s no way you’re going to fully capture the life of a person in a film,’” he said.
“You have to make difficult choices to try and get to something truthful or representative or emotional that reflects the core of the journey you’re choosing to tell within this family.”
The Iron Claw will be released in UK cinemas on 9th February 2024.
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