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The Iron Claw review: The Big Daddy of wrestling movies - You'll be floored by this tale of four sons grappling with the ambitions of a demanding father, writes BRIAN VINER


BRIAN VINER: The Iron Claw, a compelling biographical film which presents their story as an intoxicating cocktail of one part triumph to four parts tragedy.

There are plenty of very good wrestling scenes in The Iron Claw, although writer-director Sean Durkin never quite reveals the extent to which the bouts are choreographed in advance, as those of us who grew up watching the likes of Giant Haystacks and Big Daddy on ITV on Saturday afternoons always knew they were. Reinaldo Marcus Green’s film is another biopic, but as such it is diminished in ways that make sense when the final credits reveal the names of the producers: the mighty reggae star’s son Ziggy Marley, daughter Cedella and widow Rita. The film covers that fascinating period before Marley’s famous One Love concert in Jamaica in 1978, when after surviving an assassination attempt he escaped the wild violence that was tearing his native island apart and holed up in London, where he and his band, the Wailers, recorded their masterly album, Exodus.

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