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When news broke that A24 was producing a movie based on the Von Erich family, fittingly named after the family's famous finishing maneuver, The Iron Claw, fans eagerly waited to see how filmmaker Sean Durkin would tackle the stories of Fritz, Kerry, Chris, David, and Kevin Von Erich on the silver screen.
While early reviews are likely good, there is one notable omission from the story that has more than a few fans asking the same question: Where is Chris Von Erich?
Stopping by Uproxx to discuss his new film and its relationship to one of professional wrestling's other first families, Durkin was asked why the movie decided to skip over Chris Von Erich to focus on the “core” trio of brothers and let it be known that the decision came down to nothing more than economic storytelling.
“It’s really difficult. I’ve never had a more difficult decision to make as a writer. I care so deeply, so it was painful. But you have to make tough decisions and you have to do what’s best to get the film made. I wrote this script for seven years and Chris was in it for a long time. So there was a point where it became clear that if you separate yourself from the emotional connection to the family and to real life, you have to separate and say, okay, well, this is a movie, these are characters, and the movie just cannot withstand another death at that point in the movie,” Sean Durkin told Uproxx.
“It became that simple, which is so difficult from a human level, and that was what you grapple with. But from a storytelling perspective, it was right because the film, it wasn’t about just the grief. It wasn’t about the loss. It’s about the absence of grief and the resurrection and how Kevin gets through it. Also, just the nature of their deaths were very similar – all three brothers who committed suicide. So Chris made it into the film in the sense that the character of Mike is a combination of Mike and Chris in some ways.”
Goodness, that's pretty dark, right, that Kevin had too many brothers who committed suicide to focus on their stories individually, with the stories of Mike and Chris consolidated down into one character instead of two? Unfortunately, it's safe to say fans will still get the same emotional reaction from seeing Kevin lose two brothers instead of three, as the tragedy of the Von Erichs is truly one of a kind in professional wrestling.
Chavo Guerrero talks Chris Von Erich's The Iron Claw absence.
Speaking of Chris Von Erich's absence from The Iron Claw, Chavo Guerrero was also afforded a chance to discuss Sean Durkin's directing decision from a wrestler's perspective on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, and needless to say, his answer was fascinating.
“I brought that up to Sean when I read the script, I said, you know that there’s the other [brother], Chris Von Erich, is not in the movie. And Sean had a great point. He just said it was too much tragedy,” Chavo Guerrero said via Wrestling Headlines. “I mean, we only have a certain amount of time to tell the story. I explained this to, I think it was Lacey and Hollie. And they kind of mentioned you know, Uncle Chris isn’t in the movie. And I said, Well, this thing about where the movie wanted to go, are we doing a great movie or are we doing a documentary? Two different things. And they’re like, Yeah, you got a point here and I said [if it’s] the documentary and we’re gonna put it on Discovery Channel. You know, the whole three-part series, whatever. Great, let’s do it to tell it justice. I go but for a movie. I mean, who wants to see a three-and-a-half-hour movie? Yeah, with more and more tragedies and more and more. It’s gonna be tough.”
When making a movie about the Von Erich family, it's hard not to focus on the tragedy of Fritz's four sons. Still, fans don't tune into sports movies to be just emotionally decimated but uplifted, too. While Kevin Von Erich has experienced a lot of lows in his life, he's still standing tall and excited to appear on AEW with his sons, Ross and Marshall Von Erich. If he can maintain that resilience in the face of tragedy, maybe The Iron Claw will find a way to send fans home happy by the end of its runtime, too.
