The American Dream and its demise has proved fertile ground for storytellers over the last century. So much so, that a generation of students raised on a literature diet of The Great Gatsby and Of Mice and Men in schools are likely as sick of hearing it as their English teachers are of trotting out the same thematic analysis year after year. The Iron Claw sits firmly within this established canon, yet it breathes new life into a tired cliché and does one better by being grounded in a true story. This tale about the Von Erich family, captured through the medium of film and channelled through the prism of professional wrestling, is a crushing exploration of fate and the futility of chasing somebody else’s dreams.

The Von Erich’s were (and still are) a professional wrestling dynasty, headed up my family patriarch Fritz. Once a popular wrestler in his own right, with a family of his own Fritz is a mean, hard-nosed father, relentless in his drive to push them towards living up to his own idea of success. Like the spectacle of pro wrestling itself, The Von Erich household is a masculine, dog-eat-dog arena, with Fritz relishing in his role of judge, jury, and executioner as he plays his sons off against each other, disciplining them, dishing out cruel criticisms, and withholding his approval when it suits his agenda.

Yet even in the absence of any compassion from their dad, the fraternity of Fritz’s sons defies the hostility he means to provoke. Zac Efron puts in the performance of his career playing Kevin, only the second eldest son as he so insists on reminding his romantic interest Pam on their first date. The first-born, Jack, died at the age of six, his presence in the household confined to a cut out in the corner of the family portrait in the hall. Kevin, in fact endearingly innocent behind his bulging muscular exterior, tells Pam the Von Erichs are a cursed family. On that same date, he is passionately roused when Pam asks if wrestling is all just a big charade; he points out that yes, the outcomes may be predetermined, but it’s in the athleticism and convincing showmanship where a wrestler proves his salt. As he explains, winning a championship belt is a nod of recognition, a “promotion” which rewards a performer accordingly for their hard work.

And nobody works harder than Kevin – he sprints his morning runs and pumps dumbbells relentlessly in the gym. Yet when two of his other brothers, David (played by Harris Dickinson) and Kerry (played by the mercurial Jeremy Allen White), join him in the ring, their father gleefully lets them leapfrog their elder sibling and snub his hopes of a shot at the championship title. Fritz’s callous treatment of his sons goes on in this way, treating them as pawns in his grand crusade to have a Von Erich take home a shiny gold belt of their own. In this pursuit, the wellbeing of his family is secondary to his own dogged obsession with fame and glory. Mike, the youngest of the Von Erich clan and with no interest in wrestling, soon too becomes ensnared in the grip of this iron claw.

Professional wrestling is pure Americana: all beer guts, arrogant villains, and Bigger is Best spectacle. The macho pantomime has a certain appeal, where audiences suspend their disbelief as their favourite heroes are suspended in mid-air, held up by oily strongmen or soon to crush a foe with an out-turned elbow following a daring jump. Pro wrestling is also an emblem of America in a different way, in its veneer of fair competition and in its pre-determined nature, where the hard-working such as Kevin lose out to bigger personalities who know just how to rile up the crowds.

The wrestling ring, for all its fakery, is as real a stage as any for displaying the battles the Von Erich brothers had to endure. That their love for each other could prevail in the face of their father’s wickedness is a testament to how deep that loyalty to one another ran. But with the tragedies that progressively befall the family, you are left to ponder the possibility of a genuine curse on their name, and above all, what agency any of us really have to shape our own destiny and defy what has already been decided for us – in or outside of the ring.

Words by Charlie Forbes