The Iron Claw Director Reveals How Movie Was Influenced by Wrestling Cinematography

The Iron Claw director Sean Durkin has revealed how he used real wrestling matches as inspiration for how to shoot the fight scenes in his film. There have been a lot of wrestling movies over the years of varying qualities. Some of them are all-time classics that were recognized in the award circuits like The Wrestler. Others like Nacho Libre have struck up a cult following, winning audiences over. These are very different movies and tackle different areas of the wrestling scene, but it shows just how rich the sport is for storytelling. Not only are there tons of real stories worth telling, but the theatricality of the sport makes it naturally easy to tell a very cinematic and dramatic story.

The Iron Claw is the latest example of this as it tells the tragic tale of the Von Erich family, a group of brothers who are pressured to pursue wrestling by their father. Despite achieving great success, tragedy falls on the family and the film shines a heartbreaking light on their struggles. In the film, we get to see a number of their big career fights and director Sean Durkin doesn’t show much of the behind the scenes of each fight. Despite professional wrestling typically being scripted, The Iron Claw largely doesn’t show those moments and instead focuses on the intensity of each fight. Durkin spoke to ComicBook.com about how he looked at real wrestling cinematography for inspiration on how to shoot the wrestling scenes in The Iron Claw.

“When I approached a match, I first and foremost thought about the emotion of the match,” said Durkin. “What’s the best place for the camera to tell the emotional story Kevin is going through? That was always guiding first, but also I wanted to have a sense of WCCW was the first company using handheld cameras on the side of the mat, so to have a bit of in-ring handheld, and then cut to the very famous TV angle. To have that combination in certain moments, but also have the liberty to cut out wide to see the whole place. We made different decisons based on that and tried to walk that line between experiencing the wrestling, but breaking it and being more subjective.”

Where to Watch The Iron Claw 

The Iron Claw is currently only in theaters. As of right now, there is currently no news on when to expect the film on home video or streaming. The movie isn’t exactly blowing up the box office at the moment despite no shortage of praise, so we may be able to expect the movie to be available on streaming in late January or sometime in February.

The Iron Claw Oscar Buzz

The Iron Claw is getting a lot of praise across the board thanks to its dense, emotional script, beautiful cinematography in and out of the ring, and Zac Efron’s career defining performance. As of right now, it’s not looking like Efron is going to get a nomination despite the loud demand for it to happen. It’s a very packed year of incredible performances from actors like Leonardo DiCaprio, Bradley Cooper, Cillian Murphy, and many others.