directed by Sean Durkin
I remember my friend asking me to join her and see this film at the cinema. I checked the short description and thought: “What? Me? Going to see a film about sweaty men fighting in the ring? Not in this life…” And I didn’t go. But recently, I was just looking for something to watch and this title popped out on one streaming platform. No idea what happened in my head, but I pressed “play” and watched the whole film. You know what? This is a damn good story to learn, so if you feel like sports dramas are not for you, stay with me and perhaps I’ll encourage you to see something mind-blowing. We’re moving back to the late 70s to meet the Von Erichs, a cursed family, as they often said. The father, Fritz Von Erich (Holt McCallany), used to be a professional wrestler, and now he owns the World Class Championship Wrestling company. He’s had 5 children, one of whom died very early. The other 4 are Kevin (Zac Efron), Fritz’s absolute favourite and a very promising wrestler, David (Harris Dickinson) who is also into wrestling, Kerry (Jeremy Allen White) training to be a professional discus thrower, and Mike (Stanley Simons) who’s not that into sports and wants to become a musician. As you can imagine, the father is very proud of his career and wishes all his children to continue the tradition. It would be great if only he didn’t push too hard and create a home where his sons have to fight for his appreciation and love. The boys constantly feel like they’re not enough, that they need to try harder and no matter what they do, they’ll disappoint their parent. What I’ll write next is a spoiler, so be aware. I didn’t know about this family before, so to me the upcoming information was a big shock and definitely made the watching experience more interesting. *SPOILER COMING* Well… you already know that Fritz’s first son died as a child. However, Jack Jr. wasn’t the only child the parents lost. One of the 4 sons died from enteritis, but the next two committed suicide. That’s why the family was considered cursed, and I even found out about the term “Von Erich curse” which is used when a chain of tragedies occurs. Obviously, some may say it’s a curse, but in my opinion, considering the family those boys were growing up in, there’s a very mundane reason behind their deaths. This story shows how toxic masculinity and impossibly high expectations may ruin young people’s minds. They may be functioning, but at some point their bodies shut down and the only option is to “end the game”. That is why I appreciated this film so much – for showing the consequences of bad parenting. Also, a lot of parents want their children to pursue dreams, but those dreams don’t belong to the children. They belong to their parents, who failed themselves, so now they expect their sons and daughters to do better. Isn’t it hypocritical? Horribly, if you ask me. So no, this film isn’t about sweaty men in the ring – it’s about the importance of supporting children in finding their own paths and not being scared of expressing their emotions. I’ll also add some interesting fact – in the film, there are 5 sons, but in reality, there were 6. However, the filmmakers decided to skip one of the brothers, because he also committed suicide and they just felt like it’s too much tragedy in one story. I don’t agree, because it’s already heart-breaking, so personally, I wouldn’t have skipped the character of Chris Von Erich. But hey, I’m not the filmmaker, I’m a blogger, and I still appreciate this production very much.
My rating: 7/10
S.
I have nothing to watch 