The Iron Claw - Trailer

[Sphinx]

Saw this last night and thought it was ok. I think knowing the story already hindered my enjoyment of it. As mentioned, it showed it as a work at parts and portrayed as real at others which I thought would be confusing for a non-fan. Having said that, I watched with a few non-fans and they seemed to enjoy the film more than I did. One was confused by how much of wrestling is fake/real after though.

The attention to detail at parts appealed to me. Obviously they didn't include Chris, but I do kind of get that it'd be tough to include another death in the film.

I'm going back and forwards on this, but I feel like it undersold how big the Von Erichs were too. I guess the focus isn't so much on how famous they were, but it does add to the story of the pressures they were facing and help build their characters in your eyes. The part with Tom Sawyer helped with that and was great.

Though there's enough of the story to elaborate on to have another hour, I don't think I'd be up for that as it would be a long descent of tragedy after tragedy. The idea mentioned earlier of it as a TV series would have been interesting though.

[Devon Malcolm]

Just been to see this, it's very good.

Like all biopics it's unsatisfactory to a degree, especially if you know a fair bit about the people involved. And in this case there's so much to cover and there's an argument to be had that it would have worked better as a miniseries.

I thought the best aspect of it was how cleverly it faded in and out of kayfabe and the protection of it, clearly made by people who know their stuff and was trying to balance it for wrestling and non-wrestling fans, which I think it succeeds in doing.

It never felt rushed despite the number of events it covers and the casting was terrific. I agree the guy playing Ric Flair was bad but I guess if you're a non-wrestling fan it won't be at all noticeable. Really strong film and nice to see it doing so well at the box office.

As a sidenote, I think most of the people in my screening didn't know the Von Erichs' story. The scene where Kerry walks into the kitchen and you see he's lost his foot, several people in the screen went "OHHH!" which was pretty funny. But also not, because, well. Poor Kerry.

[Carbomb]

Yeh, there were audible gasps in the cinema where I saw it too. Hell of a scene, very well executed. 

[HarmonicGenerator]

I thought it was really good, and like Devon I think it did really well balancing how to treat wrestling. My wife liked it more than I did, and while she’d read the interview with Kevin in the Guardian earlier that week and knew the true story, she was still so affected by the film she had to go and have a little cry and compose herself afterwards. So it definitely worked for her as a non-fan.

Spoiler

She said it was the scene of Kerry at the end, crossing the river and seeing all his brothers, including Jack Jr, on the other side that broke her.

 

[TheScarlettChad]

2 hours ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

I thought it was really good, and like Devon I think it did really well balancing how to treat wrestling. My wife liked it more than I did, and while she’d read the interview with Kevin in the Guardian earlier that week and knew the true story, she was still so affected by the film she had to go and have a little cry and compose herself afterwards. So it definitely worked for her as a non-fan.

  Hide contents

She said it was the scene of Kerry at the end, crossing the river and seeing all his brothers, including Jack Jr, on the other side that broke her.

 

That scene I left in tears. It's a great movie I'll never watch again. Just too sad. 

[Devon Malcolm]

As I've mentioned earlier in the thread, Sean Durkin's other two films (Martha, Marcy, May, Marlene and The Nest) are both excellent, too. Not quite as bleak as The Iron Claw but just as good.

[Carbomb]

16 hours ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

I thought it was really good, and like Devon I think it did really well balancing how to treat wrestling. My wife liked it more than I did, and while she’d read the interview with Kevin in the Guardian earlier that week and knew the true story, she was still so affected by the film she had to go and have a little cry and compose herself afterwards. So it definitely worked for her as a non-fan.

  Hide contents

She said it was the scene of Kerry at the end, crossing the river and seeing all his brothers, including Jack Jr, on the other side that broke her.

 

Yeh, that got to me too. Also, 

Spoiler

"Now I'm not a brother any more."

Man, that was heartbreaking.

[Rockbus2]

Thoroughly enjoyed it, and my partner who knew nothing of the story was in bits by the end. She couldn't quite believe it when I told her there was another brother cut from the story who'd also killed himself. 

The casting was really good other than the guy playing Ric Flair having zero charisma whatsoever 

[Matthew]

Gave this a watch last night after hearing so many good things.

I’ve been a wrestling fan for 25yrs, and although I know of the Von Erichs, and that for the most part they weren’t with us anymore, I didn’t know their story at all.

Having watched the film, I could tell there were some big editorial liabilities taken with time jumps, but an absolute work of art I found. Zac Efron plays his part so well, and Fritz comes across as one of wrestling’s biggest pieces of shit.

Really impressed and surprised at the film.

[Rockbus2]

Was highly amused by someone's review on Letterboxd that simply said "Little Women for Boys"

[SuperBacon]

43 minutes ago, Rockbus2 said:

Was highly amused by someone's review on Letterboxd that simply said "Little Women for Boys"

Oh that is excellent.

[theringmaster]

Minor nitpick but I thought the handling of Kerry's crash wasn't done well, it wasn't clear what happened I felt (Obs I knew the story) but a woman at work went and saw it and the first question she had was "What happened to his foot?". I felt like we should have at least heard a crash sound or something.

 

From what i gather they cut all MJF scenes which was the subplot of the fake brother, I honestly think this would have added so much to the end, I don't think an extra 10 mins explaining how really bad business went would have hurt the movie.

 

Minor things , all in all IO really enjoyed the film.

[Devon Malcolm]

16 minutes ago, theringmaster said:

Minor nitpick but I thought the handling of Kerry's crash wasn't done well, it wasn't clear what happened I felt (Obs I knew the story) but a woman at work went and saw it and the first question she had was "What happened to his foot?". I felt like we should have at least heard a crash sound or something.

He was on a motorbike driving really fast. And then he has no foot. What do you need a crash noise for?

[gmoney]

There was a scene where one of the wrestlers was walking to the ring, and then he was in the ring, but they didn't show how he got in. I know, because I've seen wrestling before, that he must have used the ring steps, but the thickest person I know couldn't work it out. 

3 stars, some funny bits. 

[chokeout]

My main gripe was they were far too subtle with Kerrys drug use. They showed him doing some coke but, by all accounts, he was strung out most of the time and was a full on space cadet. You really didn't get a sense of how out of it he was.