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The Founder Review

Michael Keaton stars as Ray Kroc in The Founder

     The Founder (2016), directed by John Lee Hancock, tells the true story of “the founding” of McDonald’s. The film stars Michael Keaton as Ray Kroc, a semi-successful milkshake mixer salesman who after becoming business partners with brothers Dick (Nick Offerman) and Maurice “Mac” (John Carroll Lynch) McDonald, gradually swindles their restaurant away from them in order to turn McDonald’s into the conglomerate that it is today.
     The Founder is ultimately about the fantasy versus the reality of American capitalism. The McDonald Brothers are honest men who simply want to run their small business. Their unwillingness to compromise the purity of their vision keeps them from expanding the business, which they don’t have any aspirations for anyways. The McDonald Brothers represent our fantasy about business. We want them to be honest, not to be overly greedy, and be the pillars of our community. 
     Ray Kroc, on the other hand, is the reality of American capitalism. Kroc is obsessed, ruthless, and cares only for himself. Kroc has no ideas of his own. The assembly line system that is used by McDonald’s to serve food fast to customers was created by the McDonald Brothers. Ray Kroc didn’t even come up with the idea to turn McDonald’s into a real estate holding company by buying the land that McDonald’s franchises were built on and charging them rent.  One of Kroc’s employees came up with that idea. All Ray Kroc had was the ability to sell just about anything and the cunning ability to get other people to do his dirty work while he took credit for it. If there’s one good thing to be said about Ray Kroc, it’s that he was able to see the bigger picture when it came to McDonald’s. Kroc was able to turn McDonald’s into not only an American institution, but a worldwide institution. In a way, Ray Kroc’s absolute obsession with turning McDonald’s into the success it is today makes him more of force of nature, like a fast food hurricane rather than an actual human being.
     The Founder is a story about America as it as much about McDonald’s. The McDonald Brothers are up there with some of the greatest innovators of our times. However, like so many creators, they were not utterly ruthless in their business dealings. As a result, these inventors get taken advantage of and left behind by men whose obsession with winning outweighs their lack of creativity.
     Michael Keaton continues his late renaissance with his absolutely brilliant performance as Ray Kroc.  The fact that it has taken Hollywood over twenty years to recognize his talent is a shame. We could have gotten so many great performances from him over the years, but we were deprived of that. However, I suppose it’s better that Keaton be recognized now than never be recognized at all. The rest of the cast, like Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch, do a great job as well by contrasting Keaton’s performance as the honest yet quickly overwhelmed McDonald’s Brothers.
      John Lee Hancock does a great job directing this film.  He is able to pull off an accurate portrayal of what happened with “the founding” of McDonald’s.  The film does not outright demonize Kroc for his actions. Hancock and screenwriter Robert D. Siegel give a very matter of fact representation of Ray Kroc’s rise to power. There’s a little cynicism here and there when it comes to Kroc’s business dealings, but considering how Ray Kroc conducted himself, that was simply unavoidable.
      The Founder is ultimately about an American fantasy coming head on with an American reality and losing. The founding of McDonald’s is as messy as the nation it was founded on yet out of that founding delivered a type of success that can only be found in America.
        Overall rating:  ****    
        The Founder is currently on Netflix.

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