“Did you know it was even worse in real life?”, this film about this tragic drama with Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White has softened the horror of reality

News culture “Did you know it was even worse in real life?”, this film about this tragic drama with Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White has softened the horror of reality

A film inspired by true events

The Iron Claw is a film directed by Sean Durkin released in 2023. It looks back at the true story of the Adkisson family of wrestlers, better known as the Von Erich. It was his father who popularized him, for the wrestling matches in which he participated between 1953 and 1982. He held several belts including that of the AWA heavyweight category. A passion for this sport that was not only practiced in matches since he became president of several wrestling organizations and contributed to the reconstruction of the sport in Japan. It was there that he was known as The Iron Clawa pseudonym given to him in reference to his catch.

Fritz Von Erich therefore maintained his passion for wrestling and passed it on to his children, all of whom would become wrestlers at some point in their lives. Except for his first son, Mike, who drowned at the age of six. A first catastrophe for the family, which is not the only one depicted in the film.. It includes the death of David Von Erich, who died of enteritis at the age of 26. Kerry and Mike, Fritz’s fourth and fifth children respectively, also had accidents. The first had a motorcycle accident and lost his right leg. He tried to continue his career but became addicted to painkillers. He ended his life in 1993. The second suffered brain damage following an operation after food poisoning. He then passed away in 1987.

Events which are therefore traced in the film The Iron Claw and contributed to the legend of the Adkisson family curse. And yet, it was a child of the family who was left out of the film and who could well have weighed down the emotional impact of the feature film.

There was another brother

In fact, The Iron Claw does not mention Chris Von Erich. He is the youngest son of Fritz and Doris. Unlike Kevin, who is portrayed in the film as the “big brother,” Chris takes on what could be called the fate of the youngest. He watches with great admiration what his brothers do in wrestling and wants to do the same. But being asthmatic, short and with a body whose bones break easily, Chris is not having the career he dreamed of.. He then falls into depression following Mike’s disappearance. A depression made stronger by his repeated injuries. He shoots himself in the head and despite his brother Kevin’s efforts to take him to the hospital, he dies there. He was 21 years old, in 1991.

Besides this tragedy, other events were put aside for The Iron Claw. It was the user @lizzyflanagan_ who summarized it on the social network X. We particularly remember the desire, at one point, to kill themselves with a pistol that crossed Fritz and Kevin’s minds. To explain Chris’ absence on screen, director Sean Durkin explained the following to the Los Angeles Times:

Chris had been in the script for five years. When you’re trying to get a movie made, at some point you have to sort of dial it back and say, “These are characters on a page, and this is a movie, and there’s no way to completely capture a person’s life in a movie.” You have to make some tough choices to try to come up with something that’s true or representative or emotional that reflects the heart of the journey that you’ve chosen to tell within this family.

Sean Durkin therefore chooses to tell the story of the Adkisson family from the perspective of Kevin, Fritz’s second child and the only one still alive today.