History Film / TheIronClaw

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Kevin, like his real life counterpart, eschews Wrestling boots to perform barefoot.
* DoomedByCanon: The film is a BioPic about one of the most famed ''and'' tragic {{wrestling famil|y}}ies in pro wrestling history. To anyone watching the movie for a fun wrestling story [[PeriodPiece from the past]], well...

* CantCatchUp: Kevin is an extremely successful wrestler and a great athlete, but while he can definitely connect with his home Texas crowd he lacks the easy charisma that comes so naturally to his brothers, and tends to get tongue-tied or stage-frightened on the microphone. Ultimately, first David and then Kerry surpass him in the overall wrestling business.

* ICouldHaveBeenAContender: Several of the Von Erichs are this, despite the accolades they received in their careers:

** [[spoiler:Kerry buys Fritz a gun for Christmas, and later uses it to die by suicide. In real life, it had been a gift for ''Father's Day.'']]

*** Fritz appears at times to have no idea how the "game" is played and seems to struggle with the political side of the territorial system. Yet in real life, not only did Fritz have a vote on who the NWA world champion would be, he actually sat as NWA President for a time. Thus Fritz would know exactly what the politics behind becoming World Champion were.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: The film opens with Fritz blindsiding Doris by revealing that he'd sold their family car for a fancier and more expensive alternate without her knowledge or consent, insisting that it's what's needed to further his career to provide for the same family who will now struggle harder with the higher bills -- foreshadowing his fixation on fame and appearances over the well-being of his sons and the input of his wife.

** Kevin is a downplayed example, in that most of his flaws are things he works through during the film. But his problems communicating and sharing his feelings outside or even in his immediate family are major problems for him both in the ring, where he's prone to stage fright and flubbing his lines, lacking some of the charisma of his brothers, and outside of it, where he struggles to stand up to Fritz's destructive plans or to open up to his wife and children until the very end of the film.

** Despite some rough spots over the course of the film, Kevin and Pam genuinely love each other and their kids and want to make their marriage work. [[spoiler:Kevin taking a step back from wrestling to focus on his family puts them on much better terms, and the RealPersonEpilogue mentions their real-life counterparts are still married with a large brood]].

* HiddenDepths: Doris notes that Fritz was a talented and classically-trained clarinetist, which shocks the sons as they've never heard of Fritz having ''any'' interest in music, especially when considering his derision towards Mike's hobby. Doris herself is a talented painter who, for reasons even she doesn't remember anymore, gave the hobby up after marrying Fritz.

* {{Kayfabe}}: When Pam playfully asks whether or not wrestling is fake on their date, Kevin stiffly responds, as wrestlers have responded since the dawn of time, that there's nothing "fake" about what they do. When she amends the question to what exactly a title means when the sport is "pre-arranged," Kevin unwinds a little and talks about it in terms of promotions based on how well someone's doing at their job.

* RealMenHateAffection: Deconstructed. Fritz isn't ''entirely'' opposed to it, but he's noticeably more emotionally distant to his sons than his sons are to one another. In multiple scenes, they greet their father very politely, then excitedly throw their arms around their brothers.

* TheResenter: Kevin is devastated to learn that David is going to become [=NWA=] Worlds Heavyweight Champion before he himself had a chance to be. To his credit, he knows this is wrong, and makes sure to admit and apologize to David at his wedding. Sadly, this is right before the trip to Japan where David dies of a ruptured intestine.

* TheUnfavorite: While Kevin is listed high at the top of Fritz's (blatantly abusive) ranking of "favorite sons", his loss against Harley Race costing him heavyweight contention drives a rift between them as Fritz had pinned his initial hopes on Kevin winning the belt. Disappointed, Fritz instead continuously favors all his other sons over the years and pushes them into the wrestling business, sometimes pointedly ignoring Kevin out of his petty grudge. [[spoiler:This disregard of Fritz is [[{{Irony}} ironically implied]] to have saved Kevin's life, as it gives him enough leeway to start slowly escaping his father and not be pressured to live up to his expectations until he dies like his brothers.]]

* VicariouslyAmbitious: Fritz missed out on the NWA World Championship title repeatedly, leading him to push this dream onto his sons no matter the cost.

** Kerry's [[spoiler: suicide is implied to be the result of the WWF only using him on house shows. It's never stated that he left the WWF six months before he killed himself]] In real life, Kerry continued wrestling for months after leaving the WWF, and two of the reasons for [[spoiler: his eventual suicide]] were his failed marriage and a pending drug charge, both of which are omitted from the film entirely.

** Perhaps minor, but Fritz seems perpetually confused as to how the wrestling business actually works, if only so that [[TheWatson the details can be explained to the audience]]. In no short order...
*** Early on, Mike asks Kevin what he thinks about the new camera angles, referencing what was, at the time, the new, innovative way the WCCW show was shot. Only for Fritz to snap "Who cares about camera angles?" In reality, Fritz would care a great deal, given that he was the one who hired the director who pitched it to him, and paid for the extra equipment to make it possible. This is in the service of setting up both Mike's interest in the production side of World Class, which could've been a genuine asset to the company, and Fritz's unwillingness to let his sons be anything but onscreen talent.
*** Fritz chides Kevin for staying down "too long" after a suplex on the concrete from Harley Race hurts Kevin enough that he barely manages to enter the ring before a ten-count completes. Not only was the last second return to the ring at count 9 a standard bit of wrestling drama, but staying down and "selling" for such a time period was the encouraged, if not expected, way to "sell" to the crowd how devastating such a move would be, ''especially'' when your opponent is the Worlds Heavyweight Champion; while part of his job was to make the local look good returning the favor was considered good etiquette.
*** Fritz also chides Kevin for not "taking it to him." As NWA champion, Harley Race would be the one leading or "calling" the match, as he's shown doing in the film when he tells Kevin they're "going for a ride" before throwing him over the top rope. Kevin not listening and trying to do what he wanted to would be a great way to get one or both of them injured and a surefire way to make certain he'd never get the Worlds title. Beyond that, "shooting" on Harley Race, a noted badass, would be a terrible idea, and injuring the NWA champ loses ''everyone'' money so ''every'' promotion would be angry with both he and World Class.

* TheUnfavorite: While Kevin is listed high at the top of Fritz's (blatantly abusive) ranking of "favorite sons", his loss against Harley Race costing him heavyweight contention drives a rift between them as Fritz had pinned his initial hopes on Kevin winning the belt. Disappointed, Fritz instead continuously favors all his other sons over the years and pushing them into the wrestling business, sometimes pointedly ignoring Kevin out of his petty grudge. [[spoiler:This disregard of Fritz is [[{{Irony}} ironically implied]] to have saved Kevin's life, as it gives him enough leeway to start slowly escaping his father and not be pressured to live up to his expectations until he dies like his brothers.]]

* UnexpectedVirgin: Pam expresses surprise to learn that Kevin is a virgin when they have sex in a car for the first time. This might have been a case of Kevin trying to play up his family's squeaky-clean public image; the real Kevin [[https://thesmartmarks.com/printer_1272.shtml claimed in a shoot interview]] that he lost his virginity well before young adulthood.

* UnexpectedVirgin: Pam expresses surprise to learn that Kevin is a virgin when they have sex in a car for the first time.

''The Iron Claw'' is a biographical sports drama about the [[Wrestling/VonErichFamily Von Erich family]], a Texan ProfessionalWrestling [[WrestlingFamily dynasty]]. The film is directed by Sean Durkin, and stars Creator/ZacEfron, Creator/HarrisDickinson, Creator/JeremyAllenWhite, and Creator/StanleySimons as the brothers Kevin, David, Kerry, and Mike Von Erich respectively, Creator/{{Holt McCallany}} as patriarch Fritz, and Creator/LilyJames as Kevin's eventual wife Pam.

*** Fritz also chides Kevin for not "taking it to him." As NWA champion, Harley Race would be the one leading or "calling" the match, as he's shown doing in the film when he tells Kevin they're "going for a ride" before throwing him over the top rope. Kevin not listening and trying to do what he wanted to would be a surefire way to make certain he'd never get the Worlds title. Beyond that, "shooting" on Harley Race, a noted badass, would be a terrible idea.

* AbusiveParents: Fritz Von Erich is a hard, ruthless father who openly ranks which children he likes best, trains them mercilessly, and expects them to show no signs of weakness. [[spoiler:This unforgiving approach drives two of his sons, Mike and Kerry, to take their own lives.]]

** Perhaps minor, but Fritz seems perpetually confused as to how the wrestling business actually works. In no short order...
*** Early on, Mike asks Kevin what he thinks about the new camera angles, referencing what was, at the time, the new, innovative way the WCCW show was shot. Only for Fritz to snap "Who cares about camera angles?" In reality, Fritz would care a great deal, given that he was the one who hired the director who pitched it to him, and paid for the extra equipment to make it possible.
*** Fritz chides Kevin for staying down "Too long" after a suplex on the concrete from Harley Race. Not only was the last second return to the ring at count 9 a standard bit of wrestling drama, but staying down and "selling" for such a time period was the encouraged, if not expected, way to "sell" to the crowd how devastating such a move would be.
*** Fritz also chides Kevin for not "Taking it to him." As NWA champion, Harley Race would be "Calling" the match. Kevin not listening and trying to do what he wanted to would be a surefire way to make certain he'd never get the World title. Beyond that, "Shooting" on Harley Race, a noted badass, would be a terrible idea.
*** Fritz appears at times to have no idea how the "Game" is played. Yet in real life, not only did Fritz have a vote on who the NWA world champion would be, he actually sat as NWA President for a time. Thus Fritz would know exactly what the politics behind becoming World Champion were.

** The same reckless energy that made Kerry a captivating, charismatic performer and led him to painfully learn to wrestle on one foot also leads him to the drunk motorcycle accident that costs him his foot in the first place. It also leads him to become the most notorious [[DrugsAreBad drug abuser]] of the brothers, and ultimately drives him to take his own life once it becomes apparent his career is winding down.

* FinancialAbuse: Late in the film, a nearly-broke Kevin looks through the accounting and sees that he was never making as much money as the books say he did. He then realizes that on top of all the other types of abuse Fritz had heaped on him and his brothers, he was also taking a cut of their profits. In real life, this was a twisted way to keep his children close to him and dependent on him, because Fritz feared they'd leave him if he let them. Notably, David was the only brother who ''did'' have significant experience in other territories, and it's not a coincidence that David was seen as [[TheAce the greatest and most well-rounded of the brothers]].

* HiddenDepths: Doris notes that Fritz was a talented and classically-trained clarinetist, which shocks the sons as they've never heard of Fritz having ''any'' interest in music, especially when considering his derision towards Mike's hobby.

* IncitingIncident: {{UsefulNotes/Jimmy Carter}}'s decision not to allow US athletes to compete in the Moscow Olympic Games sends Kerry Von Erich home, where his father soon pushes him into the wrestling world, and into the spiral of bad choices that will eventually destroy him.

* ThePatriarch: Fritz Von Erich, the family's original wrestler turned abusive middle-aged StageDad towards his sons/protegees.

* TheAce: David. Although Kevin is the oldest, and considered the best athlete, and Kerry has the best body, David is widely considered to be the best of the bunch, even including their father. David is not only the tallest, but also the best overall worker and talker. He is the one heavily considered for the World championship, [[spoiler:until his death pushes Kerry into the spot.]]

** The film shows Fritz Von Erich as a heel while he was an active wrestler, but doesn't mention that he was originally a ''Nazi'' heel in kayfabe. The "Von Erich" ring name, in real life an example of TheVonTropeFamily, is instead explained as a grandmother's surname (the family's legal name is the non-Germanic-villain-sounding Adkisson).
** The film omits Kerry and Mike's brushes with the law and generally glosses over the boys' use of illicit substances, though there are scenes where they can be seen taking performance-enhancing drugs.

* FantasyForbiddingFather: Mike has next to no interest in wrestling, wanting nothing more than to play music with his band. Fritz grudgingly tolerates this for a while, but [[spoiler:after David's death, he forces Mike to compete as a wrestler, resulting in a horrible shoulder injury in the ring that, combined with toxic shock, puts him in a coma. When Mike emerges from the coma, Fritz makes it clear he expects him to continue wrestling, and Mike commits suicide.]]
* FinancialAbuse: Late in the film, a nearly-broke Kevin looks through the accounting and sees that he was never making as much money as the books say he did. He then realizes that on top of all the other types of abuse Fritz had heaped on him and his brothers, he was also taking a cut of their profits.

* HealthyInHeaven: In the vision of [[spoiler:the deceased Von Erich brothers reuniting in the afterlife, amputee Kerry has both his feet.]]

* LikeFatherUnlikeSon: Making their fate all the more tragic is that the boys are not manipulative or cruel like Fritz instead being sweet and loving young men.

* ParentalFavoritism: As part of his abusive nature, Fritz lays it out in no uncertain terms at the beginning that his favorite son rankings go Kerry > Kevin > David > Mike, but stresses that the "rankings can change at any time". Indeed, Kevin later begins to resent being pushed aside for David.

* RageBreakingPoint: With all of his brothers dead, Kevin finally stops putting up with his father’s abuse and nearly strangles his old man to death.

*** [[spoiler:Kerry buys Fritz a gun for Christmas, and later uses it to die by suicide. In real life, it had been a gift for ''Father's Day.'']]