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Movie fans have admitted that they felt like they were going to “throw up” after watching a Zac Efron film based on a true story.
And as much as we may love it High School Musical to be pure non-fiction, that is not the film I am talking about.
Efron has acted in several films based on true events, and after taking on the gruesome role of murderer Ted Bundy, he moved into the world of sports, playing wrestler Kevin Von Erich.
Starring Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson, Holt McCallany, Maura Tierney and Lily James, the film tells the story of the Von Erich family and the inseparable brothers who made history in professional wrestling in the early 1980s.
It may sound like a feel-good sports movie, but what happened to the Von Erich family is truly tragic. Some people even believe they are “cursed.”
The family experienced loss, injury, mental health problems and death, and director Sean Durkin struggled to incorporate the entire tragedy into the film, which bears the title The Iron Claw.
Sean Durkin directed the film about the wrestling family. (A24)
Speaking to UNILAD, Durkin explained: “There are so many tragedies in this family that didn’t make it into the film because they just didn’t fit.”
“It’s hard on a human level to leave all that out because it shaped her and her story so much, but you have to make really difficult decisions to make it a movie at all.”
The resulting film, available to stream on Max, is a gripping and heartbreaking story that received an impressive 94 percent rating from viewers on Rotten Tomatoes, but also left viewers struggling to understand its plot.
After watching the film, one person wrote: “Finally seen The Iron Claw last night and now I’m supposed to just go to work as if nothing happened.”
Another responded: “I cried so hard in the last 20 minutes of the movie that I almost threw up. It was Viola Davis level.”
Zac Efron’s character experiences a number of emotional moments. (A24)
This viewer was not the only one who felt sick at the end, as another added: “I literally wanted to throw up, I couldn’t take the sadness anymore.”
Efron himself admitted that he had difficulty getting through certain scenes during filming, and one particular moment at the end of the movie caused him to “lose it.”
“I thought I had ruined the take at that point, but I decided to stick with it, and when we finished … I looked up at Shaun, about to apologize, and he said something like, ‘No, that’s all,'” Efron recalled.
So you can’t say it will be an easy read, but it’s still worth it.
