In 1979, during the hayday in the growth of televised Championship Wrestling, a legendary wrestler, Fritz Von Erich [McCallany], known in the early circles of wrestling lore as a “maniac fighter,” was not only proficient in the sport, he was considered a master wrestler who never got to win a Championship title in his career as an active wrestler. Later in life, he prepared three of his sons to carry on his legacy. These three young men would change the path of wrestling forever, but the family was cursed with bad luck, which seemed to step in at every attempt to secure a championship within the family. One by one, the sons began to die of under strange circumstances, including the overuse of drugs, committing suicide, and dealing with serious injuries that forced them all to live with considerable pain. This movie concerns Kevin Von Erich [Efron], who at the end of his wrestling career, distanced his personal family from the "Von Erich" curse by changing his family name.
THE GOOD - The transformation of a few actors [Zefron and White] were extraordinary. The addition of Harley Race [played by Kevin Anton] was completely mind blowing. Very good use of vintage vehicles.
THE BAD - The cinematography was atrocious. Too many closeups and not enough open-panning of the wrestling matches giving a wide view of what was happening in the wrestling ring. The screenplay was weak, most importantly, there wasn't enough character development between the brothers, except that they were brothers and that the father was a borderline self-centered narcissist who demanded nothing but success and competition between his sons. Even though Zefron is a talented actor, I feel that the emotional toll being felt by Kevin Von Erich during his darkest time was way beyond his ability to grasp the performance; just looking sad doesn’t cut it. The production team seemed unable to bring the 1980's back to life, even incidentally filming scenes of today's downtown Dallas skyline, trying to pass it off as what was once seen in the early 1980s. ***On a special bad note, the casting of Aaron Dean Eisenberg as Rick Flair was a complete embarrassment to the actual wrestler man/personae.
POST MORTEM - I was raised on watching Texas wrestling on television. This film would have been better off as a made for television movie. The intensity of Fritz Von Erich didn't match the acting result of emotion from the other actors and the wrestling spots were too short. There were so many questions to the real events that occurred to the Von Erich family, that the script and director seemed to only gloss over important events and show a softer side of the story telling to keep the real family members from reliving certain dark experiences. If this film was based on real events, the fans and viewers deserve to see what really happened. I also think that the ending to this semi-indie film was just a little looney; showing three brothers meeting each other in heaven after two committed suicide and one died of a drug overdose. If this truly was an attempt at making the end of the feature an emotional moment, it was badly planned and poorly executed. This is an okay film to watch on a Sunday when you have nothing else to do.
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 [3.5 of 5 Stars]
