As a wrestling fan who's somewhat knowledgeable about the subject, in the sense that I've heard of the Von Erich family and how 5 of 6 brothers died tragically young, I'm both pleased and displeased about this film.
The film was well acted (only miscasting was Ric Flair who played a very small role), well shot, well written, well directed... It has two problems that kind of coinside with each other.
The film is too short. It tries to tell the story of 6 brothers and their father. So that's 7 people. Trying to pack that into 2 hours you'll notice the film just goes too fast from one thing to another trying to cram it all in there and none of the 7 characters get enough screen time (except the main character Kevin, I guess) and their stories don't get fleshed out enough.
You'll notice that I said 6 brothers and not 5. Yes, one brother is actually missing from the film. Chris Von Erich doesn't even get a mention. He's not in the film at all. Elements of him were put into the Mike character instead. That's even worse than not putting him in at all in a way because it takes the story and characters further away from the true story.
According to writer/directer Sean Durkin the reason they cut Chris is because of length. Seeing as my mayor complaint so far was that the film was too short at 2 hours that kinda makes sense. 2 hours isn't extremely long for a feature film so they could have added another 30 minutes and try to get Chris is there though, right? It still would have been too short and too crammed up at even 2,5 or 3 hours long imo. Sean Durkin said they could make a Godfather like trilogy about the Von Erich family but they didn't have that luxury so he had to make tough choices...
So why didn't they make a Godfather like trilogy? If you can't tell the story in 2 hours, why do it? Why does this story need to be told on the big screen at all? In today's landscape you've got more viable options than ever before. This could have easily been made into a mini series.
When you're basing a story on real people you should do those people justice. If you can't, either re-evaluate or don't do it at all. Even though I can tell Sean Durkin tried to and he did stay faithful to the true events for the most part. He didn't fully succeed in doing the Von Erichs justice in my opinion by trying to cram this into 2 hours.
The film was well acted (only miscasting was Ric Flair who played a very small role), well shot, well written, well directed... It has two problems that kind of coinside with each other.
The film is too short. It tries to tell the story of 6 brothers and their father. So that's 7 people. Trying to pack that into 2 hours you'll notice the film just goes too fast from one thing to another trying to cram it all in there and none of the 7 characters get enough screen time (except the main character Kevin, I guess) and their stories don't get fleshed out enough.
You'll notice that I said 6 brothers and not 5. Yes, one brother is actually missing from the film. Chris Von Erich doesn't even get a mention. He's not in the film at all. Elements of him were put into the Mike character instead. That's even worse than not putting him in at all in a way because it takes the story and characters further away from the true story.
According to writer/directer Sean Durkin the reason they cut Chris is because of length. Seeing as my mayor complaint so far was that the film was too short at 2 hours that kinda makes sense. 2 hours isn't extremely long for a feature film so they could have added another 30 minutes and try to get Chris is there though, right? It still would have been too short and too crammed up at even 2,5 or 3 hours long imo. Sean Durkin said they could make a Godfather like trilogy about the Von Erich family but they didn't have that luxury so he had to make tough choices...
So why didn't they make a Godfather like trilogy? If you can't tell the story in 2 hours, why do it? Why does this story need to be told on the big screen at all? In today's landscape you've got more viable options than ever before. This could have easily been made into a mini series.
When you're basing a story on real people you should do those people justice. If you can't, either re-evaluate or don't do it at all. Even though I can tell Sean Durkin tried to and he did stay faithful to the true events for the most part. He didn't fully succeed in doing the Von Erichs justice in my opinion by trying to cram this into 2 hours.