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| 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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