The Iron Claw (2023)

Written 3/20/24

"I used to be a brother but I'm not a brother anymore."

The Iron Claw is a film about the tragic history of the wrestling Von Erich family. Knowing going in did not make it any easier to the tragedy unfold over the two hours. Slowly all the brothers join into the wrestling business, and quickly the tragedies unfold. It is a story of a father that wanted to achieve a dream, but fails and pushes it into his children. The father says he doesn't want his children to become wrestlers, but pushes them to do so. He wants them to become the person he failed to be, the one son that tries to be a musician he pushes him away from that into wrestling.

Ultimately the film is about toxic masculinity vs positive masculinity. I hate the term toxic masculinity as it is commonly used wrong to refer to anything masculine as bad and wrong, whereas it should be more referring to the bad side of masculinity, such as not allowing any emotion, working yourself to death, or simply being too much of a man to ask for any help until it's too late. I think the scene that shows the toxic masculinity is right after David's funeral and the father asks his remaining sons which one of them wants the title shot. He seems more upset that his son didn't get the title then his son's death. In comparison I think back to one of the first scenes, where David the oldest asks his brothers right after getting up if they want to running with him. He does not force them, simply asks and goes without them when no one want to. A few scenes later he confronts his mother asking her to say something to his father as he is pushing the youngest to hard. Throughout the movie, the fathers coming pushing the sons, while they are constantly doing drugs in the back to cope with the pain and pressure.  Nothing shows a good father like pushing your son to down a whole bottle of painkillers. While the father pushes the sons to beyond their absolute limit to try and get the title that he never won, David the oldest is trying to keep each one of them from falling. He can only do so much. When Kerry shows up acting weird at Christmas, the father does it do anything.  Terry tries to reach out for David for help, but won't fully ask for help not giving him his location to help him. David immediately calls his mother, but his father picks up and so that's Terry is going through is between brothers. In the climax David shows up to late to save Terry, only hearing the gunshot, the father was working around the shed to be ready to save Terry. This causes David to go throws his entire emotion at his father chocking him to near death.

David keeps raising his fa