After a few days of seeing random clips from this movie floating around on my ‘For You Page’ on TikTok, I finally caved and myself and the missus sat down to watch ‘The Founder’ A…lets just say less than entirely truthful drama depicting the relationship between Dick and Mac Mcdonald and travelling salesman Ray Kroc.
In the film we see Ray trying and failing to sell milkshake mixers to ‘Drive in’ Restaurants. That is until he meets the Mcdonalds brothers, who give Kroc a tour of the restaurant and its unique ‘at the window’ delivery service.
Fascinated, Kroc tries everything in his power to join the brothers in taking Mcdonalds mainstream and cross country…Something the Mcdonald brothers are reluctant to do, but ultimately give Kroc a shot at…Leading to rising tensions between the humble country folk. who wanted their restaurant to reflect high quality food and efficiency. Vs Krocs vision for Mcdonalds to form a kind of ‘founding pillar of the community’ across the country or even..THE WORLD!?
Almost immediately after watching the film, I was left with a sense of wanting to know just how accurate the movie was vs real life events and it seems like while most of the first act is accurate, from the second act to the finish that ‘Dramatization’ label really starts taking some heavy lifting.
This reddit post is probably the most enlightening –
www.reddit.com/r/FoodHistory/comments/zef1ut/after_research_i_now_know_the_founder_2016_was/
But for folks who dont like to read too much:
*The film portrays the McDonalds brothers as semi eccentric, hard working and dedicated to their beliefs brothers, when the reality is by the time Kroc was involved in them, they’d already kind of made the money they wanted and were just happy to slip shortly into retirement with the earnings they had.
*The film depicts the brothers as being stuckfast in their ways, refusing to sign off on any changes Kroc suggests as it went against their beliefs. When the reality was the brothers were basically just really bad at communicating, and didnt want the trouble of having to review/sign anything off…So they were consistently passive to Kroc.
*The Speedee system shown in this film is showcased as some kind of revolutionary invention created by the Mcdonalds brothers. But very similar systems were already in place at ‘White Castle’ some 2 decades before this movie picks up.
*The 2nd act largely revolves around Kroc attempting to get a milkshake powder subsitute into restaurants, rather than using fresh milk and ice cream to save on production time and electrical costs, which the Mcdonald brothers are horrified by. In reality, non of that actually happened.
*In the 3rd act theres a moment where, on a handshake, Kroc agrees to pay the Mcdonald brothers 1% of all profits made in perpetuity from Mcdonalds as part of a proposed sale. Which the film then shows him never fulfilling. In reality the Mcdonald brothers only mentioned the alleged ‘deal’ YEARS after it was alleged to have even taken place, one Mcdonalds had really truely taken off and was making serious cash. Kroc and witnesses to where the alleged meeting took place all denied that agreement ever happened. and its now largely considered the case that the brothers had become quite bitter about recieving 1 million dollars (equivilent to 10 million in todays money) for the rights to their business that, by that time was earning hundreds of millions. The film also fails to note that to pay the brothers 2 million, Kroc ended up going nearly 10 million (in 1950’s money) into debt because he had to take out multiple loans and credit cards to pay them.
While I dont think these facts really change my perceptions of the film perse (Im still firmly of the belief that Ray Kroc was a petty ‘drunk on power’ and VERY nefarious buisiness man) It does somewhat concern me to see folks treating this dramatisation as the gospal on what happened. When the reality seems less like ‘Shrewd door to door salesman becomes corrupt and evil and ruins two brothers dreams sending them to an early grave’ and more like ‘Two old farts who didnt know they were onto a good thing inadvertently enable a narcissist into a position of power, are checkmated into selling their business in a VERY arseholey way, and then get kind of bitter when the thing they were never going to do anyway suddenly becomes a multi BILLION dollar empire’.
but enough about history, the film. Which I really liked! The scripts nice and punchy, the act structuring is really well balanced and at just shy of 2 hours it REALLY didnt feel it! The tone is a wonderful work of contrast balancing some sincere and gentle comedy moments with some genuinely impactful soul crushing drama. I thought the dialogue was rock solid with some real nice and genuine pieces that I felt managed to be VERY believable with just the right side of polish to it.
The ‘characters’ while not entirely accurate to their real life counterparts, were very engaging, had a strong sense of depth and complexity to them with even side characters feeling very nicely fleshed out. Most crucially of all, all the character FEEL natural within the world the makers are building, noone feels ‘off’ or out of touch with the vibe. its just a very solid attempt at 50s recreation that works REALLY well.
If I had any criticism, I think the depiction of Krocs fall from hopeless door to door salesman to cartoonish villain is a little steep, it would have been nice to have maybe seen a more gradual slip into Kroc losing his morality while chasing the bottom line. I appreciate however that they had a lot to cram into not a whole lot of time. But I still think a more gradual shift from the off would have been a better feeling outcome, as; as it stands, Kroc seems to go from ‘George Bailey’ to ‘Frank Shirley’ in the space of about half an hour in the 2nd act.
other than that its pretty much a clean sweep for me in every other regard, the direction and cine are superb, clean crisp and striking visuals that very much capture that nice contras that occured in the mid 50s, where seedy smokey back room offices were crashing up against ‘The new generation’ and the colourful, clean and vibrant aesthetic the mid 50s to mid 60s would unleash. I feel like John Lee hancock excels in reallly getting to the heart of the story he wants to tell and the ends results are a riveting visual piece that kept me firmly in my seat from start to finish.
The soundtrack, a hybrid of swelling orchestral pieces and jukebox hits of the 50s again is period perfect for this kind of movie and really gets utilised well. Though a critique I will offer here is that, it isnt anything new or different to what any other kind of ‘based on a true story’ style drama does. and as such, while its consistent and well handled. It isnt anything new and does kind of fall into the trap of being a little bit ‘stuffy’ ultimately.
And the performances are really the main reason to check this film out honestly, Michael Keaton is a tour de force here as Ray Kroc breathing life to the character that I feel would have been significantly lesser in the hands of any other actor. Keatons ruthless, relentless and at times genuinely unlikeable as ‘The Founder’ of the Mcdonalds corporation. But its a great dual role, because not only does he get to play the ‘ruthless businessman’ but it also shows the determination Kroc as a character had on the ‘up’ when he would essentially LIVE at the Mcdonalds restaurant he was trying to establish, emptying trash bins and flipping burgers with the employees. Keaton plays it wonderfully giving an all round performance that really gives him some meaty work and versitility to work with.
Not to leave out Nick Offerman or John Carol Lynch as the Mcdonald brothers, who are essentially character pieces (and not much of a stretch for Offerman), but thats not to do them a disservice, because they play the parts really well, match Keatons energy blow for blow and deliver not only some of the more lighthearted and entertaining moments in the film, but also some of the more tragic and depressing moments. they’re both superb and I could have easily just watched a movie with these two trying to found the first restraurant.
That ALSO isnt to downplay the supporting cast, with AMAZING turns from Laura Dern, B.J Novak, Linda Cardellini Griff Furst and Andrew Benator. This is as tight a casting as they come and I honestly dont think there was a bad performance in the lot.
‘The Founder’ is a great work of drama that had me enthralled from start to finish. I hadnt intended to watch it all the way through as I had other work to do that night, but it was just such an entertaining and engaging work that, while I said id ‘just sit and catch 10 minutes…’, when the credits rolled I was genuinely surprised to find myself still in my seat. While I dont think i’d say it was an ‘essential’ watch, I would recommend it. if you have an interest in docu-dramas or ‘rags to ritchs’ style stories, I think you’ll really like this one.
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