The truly tragic and incredible true story of the Von Erich brothers and the history they made within the competitive world of professional wrestling in the early 1980s.
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As we get to know the family and see Fritz Von Erich attempt to change things within wrestling and get his world title shot, it never happens the way he wants so his focus then shifts to his sons who he pushes towards wrestling. As they get older they enjoy it and want to do everything possible to please him and make him proud.
Kevin is the oldest, although the second oldest really but the oldest living brother after a freak accident occured seeing the death of the oldest brother at only 5 years old. He sees it on him to not only look after his three younger brothers but to please his father with his wrestling and get that world title shot, working harder than everyone else to try and achieve that. Kerry is training to head to the Olympics and that is something else that makes the family proud.
We do hear Kevin mention a curse on the family quite early on when he meets Pam and she accepts him and the family and becomes part of it all. The drive from Fritz is somewhat horrendous at times and the boys do attempt to be the best they can possibly be. David was not far behind Kevin in the ring and when the Olympic dreams for Kerry are shattered he joins them in the ring. Mike the youngest brother has a love for music but he is pushed to become a wrestler as well, something it appeared he did not really want to do.
The film not only shows the devasting loss and events that happen to the family, but also documents the rise of professional wrestling and how it really went on to become that entertainment sport that we have known for the past couple of decades. I used to love watching Wrestling from the late 90s into the early 00s and that was really when the WWE started to dominate and take it all over. Watching this made me feel as though people all have a wrestling phase? Well, maybe not all but a lot of people do. It is a sport that has had many tragedies and horrendous events, the Von Erich’s story is truly terrible and it wasn’t even all shown/told in the film as quite frankly I don’t think we could have dealt with even more heartbreak.
The performances are all absolutely brilliant and the casting was spot on, surely a career best for Zac Efron and it is so difficult to understand how he did not get a look in for awards season. His physical appearance to become Kevin and in the shape to be the wrestler was outstanding and then taking on all of the truly emotional scenes was just next level.
Jeremy Allen White has had success on TV and having this film in the same year as that is showing that he is certainly rising. Harris Dickinson is an actor who seems to have been in so many films in the past couple of years and rightly so, he is extremely talented. Holt McCallany was dominating and brillaint to watch as well, setting the scene for that tough love parent who thinks he’s doing whats best but destroying in his path. Maura Tierney worked very well alongside them all, with Lily James and Stanley Simons offering good support.
The wrestling scenes were well worked as well, you could easily tell that they had professional wrestlers involved in those scenes and it all just worked so effortlessly. The final scene really did have me fighting back the tears, after the constant moments of smashing you down.
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