MovieChat Forums > The Iron Claw (2023) Discussion > The way they snubbed sixth brother... Po...

The way they snubbed sixth brother... Poor thing. So disrecpectful

posted 10 months ago by emori (3661)
7 replies | jump to latest

Yes. There was one more brother. The younger one. Chris.

https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/DxgBlOsYHBQbtDbk.njZeA--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTY0MDtoPTk1OA--/https://media.zenfs.com/en/fort_worth_star_telegram_mcclatchy_952/0c4fb42367225931fbeb1ba1fe83637d

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/bc/3e/7a/bc3e7a3ab145e5207b3d157cf7f4c8e8.jpg

Who, for some reason, was snubbed by movie. He killed himself too. Apparently could not achieve level of success of his brothers. And then movie was like: "Yeah, you are not even interesting enough for movie about your family. Buy, Felicia".

I felt sorry for fella. Being in the shadow of his brothers. And then wiped from history at all. And it was disrespectful to audience too. It's even more impactful that one more brother died while young. Before his parents.

The film altogether omits the youngest brother, Chris, who suffered from health issues throughout his life and never achieved the same level of success in the ring as his father and brothers. As stated previously, Chris Von Erich committed suicide when he was 21.

According to Entertainment Weekly, director Sean Durkin said that he did have Chris in his original script but painfully had to cut the character because he could only fit so much in the movie. Instead, he blended elements of Chris into brother Mike Von Erich's storyline, depicting Mike as the sensitive youngest brother who couldn't reach the same level of fame as the others.

[–] BlackMass (1025) 10 months ago

How many brothers blowing themselves away do we need in one movie?

[–] emori (3661) 10 months ago

Thing is - this really happened. And that is the catch of that movie. If all of them would be alive - Hollywood would not care and not do movie. But when they shoot about real people - they must do right at least major points. Or don't call "based on true events" and give characters names of real people.

In Alpha Dog movie it was very rare situation when they took real story but gave fake names to every character. And no one could accuse them in omitting and making up things. Because it was "inspired", but real people's names were not spoken.

[–] millsey72 (10372) 10 months ago

I am hearing that the 6th brother will be in the sequel

[–] redban (6318) 9 months ago

Who, for some reason, was snubbed by movie.

It's not "for some reason." They made that decision to restrain the movie's length. They would've had to add another 20-30 minutes (minimum) for another brother because they'd need to develop this brother's personality and show why this brother committed suicide. The movie was already over 2 hours as is, and look at how quick they had to do certain events (e.g. Kerry's leg injury)

I think it's fine. We got the jist of the family's tragic story with just 4 of them.

[–] Clapstick (138) 9 months ago

Agreed. People saying they had to cut him out due to run time but that’s just ridiculous. Omitting an entire sibling and not even mentioning that yet another comitted suicide? That’s 3 of 6 brothers!

[–] daredevil1 (197) 7 months ago

The thing is if he had died in a different way he probably would have been included and narratively it would've played up the 'curse' aspect. But it was ANOTHER suicide,, and it would just be repetitive to the point the audience would start to lose interest. It kind of works the way it is because they die as a set of 3, one for each act. They would have had to devote at least another 15 minutes to Chris, to get to relatively the same point they did anyway so it would seem excessive.

The other thing is, while his story about being short in stature and too weak to wrestle is kind of compelling and at least different enough from the others that it would seem to warrant inclusion, I think this would just feel out of place to portray. It's the same reason why they don't get into drug and divorce angles- they want to narratively tie the movie around the central theme that Fritz was a monster who destroyed his sons, and the runt brother aspect diverges from that in an unsatisfying way. It's fine to say a movie based on real life should be completely true but that's never how it goes. They're not filming a doc so they have no obligation to complete fact, they're trying to make a 2 hour movie with a 3-act structure.

[–] millsey72 (10372) 7 months ago

Who really knows if he really was their brother or not. I recently found out that the Undertaker and Kane are not really brothers, but part of a fake story line. It wouldn't shock me if none of these Von Erichs boys are really related