| The Founder |
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by Peter J. O’Connell
The Founder.
Released nationally: Jan. 2017. Runtime: 115 mins. MPAA Rating: PG-13 for brief
strong language.
Ray Kroc’s life as a salesman—of multiple-milkshake mixing
machines—in his mid-50s in mid-America in the mid-‘50s was kind of a drag.
Sales, mostly of single machines to hamburger stands, were slow. So when Ray
(Michael Keaton) was told that a stand in California had ordered an astonishing
six machines, he became intrigued and drove across country to see what was what
at that stand, which was called McDonald’s. The
Founder, directed by John Lee Hancock and written by Robert Siegel, shows
the fact-based story of what followed from that trip by Ray Kroc. What followed
would eventually change life-styles in America—and around the world.
Most burgers at that time were either sold to sit-down
customers in diners or luncheonettes or at drive-in stands where “carhops” took
orders, chosen from a variety of items, and delivered them to customers, usually
young people in their teens and 20s, in their cars and then took away the tray
and remnants. Generally, just one cook prepared all aspects of the burgers, and
there was a wait for them.
McDonald’s was different. The burgers weren’t brought out to
the customers; the customers lined up outside at a window to order and get the
burgers, which were in disposable packaging (paper bags). Ray was stunned when
a burger that he had ordered after standing in line for just a little while was
handed to him barely 30 seconds after he gave his order. How was this possible?
Ray meets with the two McDonald brothers—Dick (Nick Offerman)
and Mac (John Carroll Lynch)—who own the stand (and a few others) to find out
the secret of their success—after first being stunned again when the brothers
upped their mixer order from six to eight. That secret, engagingly revealed in
a fast-moving series of brief scenes, was, in effect, though the brothers don’t
explicitly say this, to apply the mass production/assembly-line techniques of
Henry Ford and the time/motion “scientific management” techniques of Frederick
J. Taylor to the operations of a humble hamburger stand.
The layout of the McDonalds’ stand was specifically designed
for this approach. There was division of labor. Each worker had an assigned
task to be followed exactly. Quantities were precisely measured, and product
offerings were limited so as to expedite service and identify the stand as a
place specializing in those offerings.
After the brothers’ presentation, Ray is all fired-up by
what he sees as the unrealized potential of this kind of operation. He wants
the brothers to put him in charge of franchising. They are reluctant to do so
because the few franchises that they already offered have not fared well
because of lax management by the franchisees, though one franchisee did have a
nice idea by adding golden arches to his stand.
Ray persuades the brothers to let him handle franchising,
but he does the franchising at first mostly in the Midwest, so he can do it “his
way.” He vows to make sure that the stands are managed properly. And he does.
When the “country club set” to whom Ray had first sold franchises as
investments, function simply as absentee landlords and let the stands drift
away from “McDonald’s principles,” Ray ditches that set and launches a dynamic
effort at recruiting “hungry” young entrepreneurs, including minority group
members, women and blue-collar guys. He is successful in this effort and in
bringing attention to the opening of each new McDonald’s with Barnumesque
promotional techniques. Soon the company is becoming a national phenomenon. And
increasingly, Ray refers to himself as its Founder.
Ray also wants the golden arches used on every stand and
says that they should become as ubiquitous a symbol in American communities as
the cross and the flag. In fact, he tells Mac and Dick that McDonald’s is not really
in the hamburger business; it’s in the business of providing an “American
experience for the American family.” Mac and Dick always have been made
somewhat uneasy by Ray’s almost manic level of energy, but, they figure, why
argue with success? As the movie proceeds, they will, to their sorrow, come to
know why, in a series of surprising and poignant developments that should
provoke thought and discussion.
As Ray expands McDonald’s, we see bits and pieces of his
personal life. For one thing, he is a heavy drinker. And his wife, Ethel (Laura
Dern), is perpetually dour. Eventually, Ray ditches her for Joan (Linda
Cardellini), the lively blonde wife of a business associate (Patrick Wilson).
When Ray first meets Joan, there is a charmingly sly scene in which the two
together sing and play on the piano “Pennies From Heaven.”
So what are we ultimately to think of Ray Kroc? He did not
found McDonald’s first hamburger stand or the techniques that made it
successful. But he did, in effect, found a whole industry, the fast-food
industry. The McDonald brothers had applied the great production and management
principles of the first half of the 20th century to their stand. Ray
Kroc pioneered many of the management and marketing principles, such as
branding, which were to animate business in the second half of the 20th
century and beyond.
What about his ethics? Ray Kroc was a man who could say, “If
I saw a competitor drowning, I’d shove a hose down his throat.” Well, viewers
can make up their own minds, but, as in the later 19th century,
“captains of industry” to some are “robber barons” to others. Even the pioneers
of another great industry that emerged in the latter half of the 20th
century, the digital industry, have been dubbed by some “the pirates of Silicon
Valley.”
In
any case, The Founder is a thoroughly
enjoyable film. It is even a pioneering one in its own right. Most movies set
in a business treat the actual processes and procedures of that business in a
cursory way and concentrate instead on personal interactions and the social or
ethical issues the movie is highlighting. The
Founder strikes a balance. It treats business procedures and processes in a
way that makes them engrossing in their own right. Kudos to Hancock and Siegel!
But the heart and soul (hmmm…) of the film is Michael
Keaton’s portrayal of Ray Kroc. It is a magnetic, no, charismatic recreation of
this dynamic figure. Particularly memorable are those moments when Ray gets an
idea that will advance his interests, and Keaton gets a glint in his eyes and a
slight smirk on his face. It’s like those moments when a cartoonist draws a
light bulb going on in a character’s head to represent an idea taking form.
Kudos to Keaton!
It is, however, curious that for a film so much about
marketing, the marketing of The Founder itself has been so lackluster.
After many delays, it was given a “trade” release at a few showings in December
to make it Oscar eligible. Although critics liked the film, the producers did
little to create “buzz” around it, and it did not receive any Oscar
nominations, though Keaton’s performance, at least, clearly deserved one. Then
in January, when the film was released nationally, though not as widely as it
should have been, the marketing did not correct the misperception among many in
the public that the movie was some kind of lengthy advertisement for McDonald’s
or a documentary. No kudos to the movie’s marketers!
