Throughout most of The Iron Claw, we get to see how much the Von Erich brothers loved each other. And it makes each of their tragedies that much more heartbreaking.
The Sean Durkin film, which stars Zac Efron as Kevin Von Erich, highlights the true story of what Jack Adkisson, who wrestled under the name Fritz Von Erich, did to his sons in order to make a name for the Von Erich family. Jack (Holt McCallany) was a wrestler and when he didn’t make it, he got his sons into the business. Starting with Kevin (his first son, Jack Jr., passed away as a child), Fritz slowly brought David (Harris Dickinson), Kerry (Jeremy Allen White), Mike (Stanley Simon), and then Chris Von Erich into the sport. In the film, Chris isn’t included; elements of his story were combined with Mike’s.
In The Iron Claw, we watch the slow destruction of the Von Erich family, starting with the death of David Von Erich from enteritis. The legacy of the family then goes on to the shoulders of Kerry Von Erich, who eventually takes his own life (like many of the Von Erich brothers eventually do), and what we see in the final moments of the movie is Kevin Von Erich deciding to break the cycle.
The end of The Iron Claw is a lot—mainly the part that truly drives home what finally broke Kevin. After he is too late to save Kerry and screams at his father for not being there for his sons, the last moment we see is Kevin looking at his own kids and watching his boys play. While crying, Kevin says to his children that he used to be a brother, and his kids say that they will be his brothers now. It leaves you knowing the power of the love Kevin had for his brothers.
Throughout the movie, Kevin consistently tries to get his parents to talk to his brothers. He does it over and over again. He is begging his mother to talk to Mike, he keeps asking his father to talk to Kerry when he is the only brother Kevin has left. Neither will do it, they put it on Kevin. When he loses all of his brothers, that is what finally breaks him. And he does not let it go easily, almost strangling his father in the process of his grief.
Seeing Kevin’s pain so vividly at the end of the movie, and seeing how Efron shows the pain that he’s going through in comparison to Jack—who told the boys to hide their pain over David’s death earlier in the film—really highlights just how much growth he’s gone through emotionally and how open he is about it all.
The end of The Iron Claw is emotionally intense, but it’s a beautiful look at how cathartic it can be to realize that there are people around you who will support you even when you think you’ve lost everything. It’s what makes that final shot of Zac Efron as Kevin Von Erich so good.
(featured image: A24)
