Gladiators, pain freaks, brutes, clowns, real athletes, fake competitors: the stars of professional wrestling are all of those things. And back in the 1980s, when wrestling was reaching its cultural zenith, it almost seemed like you could divide the world between those who took wrestling to the level and those who dismissed it as a tasteless, vulgar, over-the-top joke. .
However, it was never that simple. Even if you saw through the simulated nature of wrestling, you could still enjoy the theater as a cartoon show. And a lot of hardcore wrestling fans were really in on the joke. They knew, on some level, that they were watching staged hijinks, but that didn't stop them from experiencing it all as “real.”
Director: Sean Durkin
Writer: Sean Durkin
Stars: Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson
If you're wondering how that kind of cognitive dissonance works, welcome to the America that professional wrestling helped create: an America in which Donald Trump, who used professional wrestling to boost his own celebrity, could build his aspirations. presidential statements about forgery and still being "believed" by people who don't care that they are being deceived.
All of which makes “The Iron Claw,” a real-life wrestling saga set in the late '70s and early '80s, with a cast consisting of Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White, a perfect film for this moment. Writer-director Sean Durkin (who made the chilling cult drama “Martha Marcy May Marlene” twelve years ago and then went unnoticed), tells the story of the Von Erich family, a dynasty of championship-winning Texas wrestlers. , found enormous popularity and put their stamp on a sport that was only then making its larger-than-life mark. Some called them the Kennedys of wrestling, and the Von Erichs also had a family “curse,” a legendary streak of personal catastrophe.
In the opening moments, filmed in dusty black and white, we meet the patriarch who started it all, Fritz Von Erich (Holt McCallany), when he was a wrestler in the '60s, trying to make a living to support his wife and two children ( with another on the way). At the time, he was quite the mad dog. In the ring, we see him perform his signature move, the Iron Claw, which involves holding his hand up high, fingers curled and tense, and then using it to rip into his opponent's face. It's all pretend, of course, but back then the synthetic nature of wrestling was less grandiose.
Outside of the ring, Fritz is a deeply conservative family man who raises his family as if he were straight out of the 1950s. But that's easier said than done, as the film jumps forward to 1979, where we meet Von Erich's children, who are furry paragons of post-countercultural red state America. The film's central figure, Kevin Von Erich, is played by Efron, who has undergone a physical transformation almost as dramatic as De Niro's in "Raging Bull."
We've seen dozens of actors lighten up, but Kevin's body is a mass of steroidal muscle that he wears like a second skin, and beneath his choppy bangs he's both handsome and goofy. Efron, squinting, looks like David Cassidy crossed with the Hulk. Kevin is a rising star on the wrestling circuit, but what he seems like is a young man locked in his dreams.
Kevin and his brothers, who will soon step into the ring with him, see themselves as athletes, pure and simple. They never consider wrestling a joke, and neither does the film, which has a tone of serious and tragic sincerity. “The Iron Claw” shows us exactly how wrestling works and, at the same time, how its stars can take themselves as seriously as they do.
Just before a tag team match, we see the four wrestlers planning the choreography; all moves and bits are mapped out. But there is room for improvisation, and what can never be put on stage is the bravura of the star. Getting promoted and receiving a title shot means executing the jumps, punches, and punches to violent perfection, turning it all into fascinating theater, and pleasing the crowd.
We are rooting for Kevin to climb that ladder, for him to advance from competitions at the local Sportatorium to a chance to become a National Wrestling Association champion. But there is competition. He comes from his brothers, whom his father not only trains: he classifies them and pits them against each other so that they all compete for his love and approval.
There's David (Harris Dickinson), a mild-mannered joker with long blonde hair and angel hair, who finds himself dragged into the ring almost despite himself. There's Kerry (Jeremy Allen White of "The Bear" in his first film role.
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