88% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 160 reviews)
Runtime: 132 minutes
Directed by: Sean Durkin
Starring: Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson,
Holt McCallany, Lily James
From: A24
Well, I suppose “Inspired by a true story” and “Based on a true story” are two different things…
After two days where I revisited various pictures, it is now time to return to normal. As a pretty devout follower of (mainly) older professional wrestling, of course I had to take a journey to the cinema for the viewing of a major motion picture based on the tragic story of the Von Erich wrestling family-real name Adkisson. It’s a story I’ve known rather well for a number of years, so yes I noted when the timeline was sometimes fudged and also realized that the trailers greatly downplayed just what a sad story this would be for those that had no idea what happened to all those brothers.
One key decision made in the story’s presentation I disagree with: omitting an entire brother from the tale. Chris was the youngest of the siblings whose ultimate fate was also tear-inducing. I know, that was done as the viewer would have dealt with even more tragedy yet it stinks as due to health reasons he was the smallest of the brothers and he needed to be remembered also. After all, the first-born (Jack Jr.) was mentioned; he died as a 6 year old in 1959 after an accident. Like I said, the details presented aren’t always chronologically correct—but many of those events actually occurred. This includes what happened w/ Kerry, how he came back and was able to hide a certain detail from the public. Scouts honor that did occur despite how outrageous it may sound.
For those unfamiliar: as the movie alluded to but not always made explicitly clear, back in those days pro wrestling was a series of territories. That changed w/ the WWF breaking the rules and becoming a worldwide phenomenon, shortly after the Von Erich family became a popular fad w/ World Class Championship Wrestling of Dallas, Texas. David, Kerry, and Kevin were good-looking men who became as popular as rock stars… and like with many wrestlers in the 80’s, they partied like rock stars, drugs and all. Bad things happened to the family and I’ll leave it at that.
The patriarch of the family (wrestling name Fritz Von Erich) was quite a bit worse than portrayed in the film, if you can believe it. He forced his sons into the wrestling business, their desires be damned; among many sins, he exploited his own family’s struggles multiple times to sell tickets and the way he treated his children was rather appalling. Heck, AEW World Champion Maxwell Jacob Friedman (who only appears in one scene) played Lance Von Erich, a fake cousin of the family that was used by Fritz for unpleasant reasons.
The film is centered around Kevin Adkisson, to use his birth name; he was played by Zac Efron. The film made clear the love the brothers have for each other despite their tyrannical father and a mother who was rather cold & at times uttered snide remarks. His relationship w/ his wife-to-be Pam (Lily James) was also critical for how the story was presented. The cast as a whole did a rather dandy job… that includes “Buff Willy Wonka” Jeremy Allen White as Kerry and others I won’t note as otherwise this review would be even lengthier. Aaron Dean Eisenberg as Ric Flair has been roasted by Ric Flair as his impression of a rather distinctive person just wasn’t right but that is a detail I can laugh about.
To reiterate, this is a tale full of catastrophe for the family; it’s not a feel-good movie of the year despite an uplifting ending. Judging from reviews written by those that aren’t fans, most rate this quite highly. As a fan, it was a relief this was not filled with inaccuracies or treated the tragedy in a disrespectful manner.
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