Never was into wrestling so never followed these guys.

but now suddenly, in all my social media feeds I am seeing Van Erich going over to Israel because he is a zionist. Is this someone in the movie? I have no idea the names of all these characters.

The Kerry height difference was absolutely a distraction for those of us that are familiar with the Von Erichs.

A great movie nonetheless.

That's a great way of putting it. It was a distraction for Kerry to be a shorter guy. My wife didn't care, but I couldn't stop noticing it in every scene regardless of his acting.

I just watched it this afternoon.
I thought that Fritz should be Oscar nominated for Support Actor.
And Kevin and Kerry should have been switched actors.

So going back to this...I just stumbled across this picture of Kerry and Arnold back in the day. Perfect example of why I couldn't get my head wrapped around the little dude they put in for him.

Kerry Von Erich and @Schwarzenegger: pic.twitter.com/kozjN3uzEL

— Ost’s Wrestling Archive (@ostpies) December 1, 2022

We watched this tonight. I had never heard any of them before and didn't know what the movie was about other than wrestling going in. Wow what a gut punch. My wife and I said about 20 minutes in "I feel like this might turn into a sad movie" that was quite an understatement.

Also for those complaining about the size of actors compared to the real people… I'm sure less than 1% of people who see the movie will know anything about the people they're playing.

Watched it, visually it was great. Story and pacing was just ok. Thought the actors did a good job , but not wowed by movie. I think the main problem was making Kevin the protagonist, character just didn't have much depth. I think the story with Kerry or Fritz as the main character would have been better.

The Milkman said:

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Also for those complaining about the size of actors compared to the real people… I'm sure less than 1% of people who see the movie will know anything about the people they're playing.

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You think that less than 1% of people going to see a film about a professional wrestling family dynasty know anything about the core characters?

The comparison of the actors cast vs the actual Von Erich's didn't bother me at all as it did some but I'm pretty sure that number has to be greater than 1%.

Yeah I think a movie thats on HBO Max (and promoted as new on there) starring Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White is going to get a big neutral audience. Based on a couple of my group texts, I know about 10 people who have seen the movie who had no idea the story. Small sample size but I think if you're younger than 40 and not someone who watched wrestling the odds of you knowing them are slim

Watched it last week. As someone who grew up outside of Dallas and saw the Von Erichs wrestle at the Sportatorium multiple times in the early 80s, I thought it was fairly well done. I guess my biggest complaint is they tried to include too much and, as a result, it was just a whirlwind. As someone who knows the backstory of all of them, it seemed like blur. Trying to tell the life story of Kevin, David, Kerry and Mike (and, to an extent, Fritz) with any depth in a single 2-hour movie is probably too much to ask.

I did think they got growing up in Dallas in the early 80s right though.

I saw this movie when it hit MAX, and it was incredibly well done, as is pretty much everything else A24 does.

What a tragic story, even omitting Chris. It's not beyond wondering that the von Erich's were cursed.

The curse was Fritz, their own father. The only one to survive was the one who put distance between him and "the curse" and had the courage to tell him "no".

David died of a drug OD, no? The stomach "bleed" was a cover?

Either way, wow.

JCA1 said:

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Watched it last week. As someone who grew up outside of Dallas and saw the Von Erichs wrestle at the Sportatorium multiple times in the early 80s, I thought it was fairly well done. I guess my biggest complaint is they tried to include too much and, as a result, it was just a whirlwind. As someone who knows the backstory of all of them, it seemed like blur. Trying to tell the life story of Kevin, David, Kerry and Mike (and, to an extent, Fritz) with any depth in a single 2-hour movie is probably too much to ask.

I did think they got growing up in Dallas in the early 80s right though.

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This is a good take. I really enjoyed the movie and thought it was really well made all around. Efron had a strong performance. There was too much story to tell though, there could have been more character development but too hard to do with such a robust story in a film setting. They did well in pointing things out like Kevin not being the best showman/speaker or Kerry diving in to substance abuse from the jump. Would have made one hell of a limited series.

BadMoonRisin said:

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I saw this movie when it hit MAX, and it was incredibly well done, as is pretty much everything else A24 does.

What a tragic story, even omitting Chris. It's not beyond wondering that the von Erich's were cursed.

The curse was Fritz, their own father. The only one to survive was the one who put distance between him and "the curse" and had the courage to tell him "no".

David died of a drug OD, no? The stomach "bleed" was a cover?

Either way, wow.

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Hard to say. Some wrestlers still swear it was really just enteritis. I know Flair still believes it is.

But that's just Ric, Bret Hart, in his book, seemed to lean towards a drug situation.

I dont know, the whole story is just tragic.