The Founder

Dir: John Lee Hancock

2016

****

Based on the official autobiography, and an unauthorized biography, 2016’s The Founder tells the story of Ray Kroc, the man who took the original McDonalds fast food chain away from its owners and made it into a global success. It’s the story of the humble hard-working way of life in 1950s America and how capitalism completely consumed it. Writer Robert D. Siegel started writing about the history of McDonalds but soon realised that Ray Kroc would be the better focus in order to tell the story properly. Richard “Dick” and Maurice “Mac” McDonald started up a Hotdog stand in 1937 but realised after years of poor sales and unruly customers that there was a much more efficient way to sell food. They designed a purpose-built restaurant in San Bernardino in 1948 focused on hamburgers and French Fries and adopted a combination of key factors that would maximize productivity and minimize overheads, while pulling in a healthy profit. Key to their success was uniformity, quality and speed. Meanwhile, salesman Ray Kroc had been cutting his teeth for decades, travelling across the country for decades, selling all sorts of kitchen equipment, hoping to find a lucky break. He had stopped into nearly every drive-in in the mid-west and had never experienced anything quite like what the McDonald brothers were doing. When he sold them a batch of milkshake mixers that it would ordinarily take him six months to sell in one go, he just knew he had to be a part of it somehow. He was a seasoned salesman and it didn’t take him long to convince the McDonald brothers to let him franchise the company. The brothers had tried it once before but they stopped when it was clear they had little control over the standards of the new restaurants and they worried about their wholesome brand they had worked years perfecting would be left in tatters. They weren’t greedy men, they worked hard, had a strong work ethic but put quality and pride over exploitation and cheap money-making schemes. Ray Kroc also worked hard on the franchises but he found he was losing more money than he was earning. He had worked hard his whole life, this was his last chance at success, so when he realised he could make more money with the real-estate aspect of the company, and he changed the way of the American way of business forever. In the end he bought the company for a few million, a lot in those days but in the end it was nothing compared to how much he made. He promised more money to the brothers but never delivered. It starts off as a McDonald’s advert and turns into a capitalist’s wet dream. It’s the truth behind western civilisation, business and how the world has been run for the last seventy years. It’s frightening really and will make you feel sicker than a Filet-O-Fish ever will. It’s the best anti-capitalist film since There Will Be Blood and the best anti-consumerism film since Dawn of the Dead. John Lee Hancock’s direction is perfect, the man really can bring the 1950s back to life brilliantly. That said, the Coen Brothers wanted to make the movie initially after falling in love with the screenplay. They chose to make Hail, Ceaser! Instead, which on retrospect might have been an error. I’d love to have seen the Coen’s version but actually, John Lee Hancock’s version is great. It’s quite apt that Hancock directed the film in a way, as his work ethic is as strict as the McDonald brother’s was. Most productions work 12+ hours a day, his works between 8-10 hours as he never overshoots and sticks to schedule. He would use clever methods of filming, such as the phone call scenes, in order to create genuine reactions to the phone conversations, the props and sound departments rigged the phones with speakers so that both sets of phone conversations could be filmed simultaneously. The filming took just 22 days, which is unheard of in modern film making. Tom Hank’s was offered the role but declined, and I’m glad, as I can totally see why he would have been first choice but it would have been too obvious and I think Michael Keaton is brilliant in the part, better than anyone else who I can think might do it justice. Hancock and producer Jeremy Renner were so helpful in preparation for shooting the film that they provided Keaton with a great amount of video footage and interviews of the real Ray Kroc. This included making previously unpublished material for Keaton as a reference and guidance to Ray Kroc's voice, patterns of speech and mannerisms. Keaton turned down the Hank’s part in Philadelphia that earned him the Oscar, so there is a divine justice about it. Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch are great as the brothers McDonald but I can’t help but think Laura Dern is wasted in a tiny role that was somewhat beneath her talents. Overall, the film is pretty much faultless. They may have missed out on the fact Kroc had a daughter and a third wife but it took nothing away from the crux of the story. It’s a dark world we live in, you’d be best remember that the next time you stuff a quarter pounder in your mouth you consumerist pig. For further understanding on the subject, listen to Mark Knopfler’s ‘Boom, like that’.