December 22, 2023 – The tragic story of the famous wrestling family, the Von Erichs, is hardly a Christmas movie, even through it opened on Christmas weekend. But this is awards season too, and tragedies and suicides are richly rewarded in awards season, remember “Million Dollar Baby?” You haven't heard the last of this movie.

The inspired-by-fact movie (there is some fabrication and timelines have been altered to streamline the story) opens with the elder Von Erich, Fritz (played by Holt McCallany of “Nightmare Alley”) promising his wife, Doris (played by Maura Tierney of “The Report”) that she and their children will have a real home and that he will be a world champion wrestler in the future.

Flash forward a few years and we find that Fritz did keep these promises, and he now owns his own wrestling company, which includes fight programs on ESPN. His sons, Kevin (Zac Efron of “The Greatest Showman”) Kerry (Jeremy Allen White of “Fremont”) David (Harris Dickinson of “Triangle of Sadness”) and Mike (Stanley Simons of “Angelfish”) all become wrestlers, following their father's success.

Despite all the success that Fritz has enjoyed in life, he is still unsatisfied and angry. He thinks he has been robbed of the success he deserves. His sense of entitlement in life is extreme, so he pushes his sons hard to achieve the success he thinks he has been unfairly denied. Perhaps it is this pressure that contibutes to the tragedies.

The family tragedies began long ago with the accidental death of Fritz's first born, Jack Junior (Fritz's real name is Jack Adkisson) in 1959 at age six. The deaths continued apace during the time period covered by this movie. As bad as the tragedies are in this movie, one, the death by suicide of Fritz's son, Chris Von Erich in 1991, was even left out to simplify and shorten the movie.

A good reason for all the deaths in this film isn't really given in this film, but a 2014 study of professional wrestlers by Eastern Michigan University indicates that mortality rates for professional wrestlers are up to 2.9 times greater than the average rate for American men. Causes are thought to be use of steroids and other drugs (this is hinted at in the movie) injuries, a heavy very work schedule, and a lack of adequate health care in the wrestling entertainment business.

While several members of the Von Erich family won a number of wrestling titles, these titles seem hollow because a lot of wresting matches are scripted, and the winners are predetermined, based on crowd appeal as much as athletic ability. The wresting action in the movie is similarly scripted, and similarly entertaining. Real life wrestler Chavo Guerrero Jr. (who appears in the film as Edward “The Sheik” Farhat) is the movie's primary wrestling consultant.

The central character in this film is Kevin Von Erich, who is worn down by one tragedy after another as his brothers die and his career and business opportunities evemtually dry up. He is so worried about the family curse he makes sure his children don't use the Erich family name. They use his real name instead, Adkisson. His worries about the curse almost doom his marriage. In one dramatic scene he nearly chokes his father to death, blaming him for the death of one of his brothers.

The dramatic arc of this movie is evident from the outset, but there were a couple of places in the movie when I didn't quite foresee the exact course of events. Some of the tragedies I expected to happen did happen, but it took a lot longer to get to that point than I thought it would. There is a constant sense of doom that hangs over this movie, but a few things unexpectedly turn out O.K.

This movie seems a lot longer than its running time of two hours and 10 minutes, probably because I was constantly waiting for the next terrible tragedy to happen. This is a movie that telegraphs its punches well in advance. It is nonetheless compelling, even though it provides no easy answers to explain why this very successful family had such bad luck. This movie rates a B.

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