“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.”
It’s no wonder The Founder, the Michael Keaton-driven biopic of McDonald’s supremo Ray Kroc, trots out this Calvin Coolidge truism so early on: The famous motivational quotation describes not just what Ray Kroc was, but also what he was not. After all, that same old bromide goes on to disparage talent, genius, and education, because “persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” You don’t need to be gifted, smart, or highly schooled to make it big, you just need to be a tenacious and ruthless son of a gun.
And that’s pretty much the take away from The Founder, which opens to Ray Kroc as a fifty-something serial salesman hawking restaurant-capacity milkshake makers from the trunk of his car in small-town fifties rural-scapes. His gadget proves a tough sell, until a busy burger stand in San Bernardino phones in a large order. Intrigued, Kroc drives out to the original McDonald’s restaurant (burgers, 15 cents!) and marvels at the revolutionary efficiency undergirding a brand new concept: fast food.
Run by two brothers, Mac and Dick McDonald (John Carroll Lynch and Nick Offerman), the little stand buzzes with activity. Everything about its burger delivery has been optimized and streamlined. No drive-in carhops, no plates, no trays, no complicated menu. Just burgers, fries, drinks, and shakes, assembly-line style sliding down a chute and served on demand. Kroc is mesmerized, and suggests franchising the business. The rest, as they say, is history.
That’s where The Founder gets interesting. Director John Lee Hancock shows how Kroc and the reluctant, modest-minded brothers strike a deal, and Kroc sets out across the country to drum up franchisees and grow the chain. We see how the corporate entity we now know came to be, and watch every bridge get burned along the way.
Keaton is terrific here. He fully inhabits Kroc with equal parts exuberance, tenacity, and ruthlessness. He slings a good hustle, sure, but also knows when to cut and run, and can size up a franchise (or franchisee) in an instant. He may not be the brains (the McDonald brothers thought up most key innovations) and he may not be a skilled restaurateur, but he clear-cuts a path through all resistance, paving the road for his outsize dreams. Through a series of Machiavellian plays and chance encounters, we see how Kroc built the company, repurposed its mission, and ultimately snatched control of the business and even the name. Laura Dern, Patrick Wilson, BJ Novak, and Linda Cardellini lead a strong supporting cast.
The sentimental among us will ache for the enterprising, good-hearted, and ultimately naive McDonald brothers, who did much of the early think-work yet found themselves sidelined and ultimately shut out of the juggernaut Kroc quickly built. But it’s also true that their original concept could only go so far–it simply took Kroc and his boundless ambition to shape it into what it now is.
It’s quickly becoming cliché in today’s climate to relate any and everything back to President Trump, but this film out-and-out begs for it. How is it that the guy who contributed so little to the original concept of McDonald’s ended up its owner, and even founder? Where else in our society do talent, genius, and education serve chiefly to fill out the payroll of the fundamentally ruthless, talentless steamrollers in the C-suite? Actually, probably everywhere. This is a success story, though not a particularly inspirational one for anyone who still believes that merit actually matters. As such, it’s required viewing for citizens of the American experiment, particularly today.
Haus Verdict: Not a heartwarming tale, but an impressive one. The Founder is worth seeing for the fascinating origin story, and doubly so thanks to Keaton’s bang-on performance.
The Founder opened everywhere on January 20.
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