mphtrilogy

Kroc was a real jerk for the renege on the handshake deal..., good job by keaton tho.

Overall a good movie.. 3/5

JimRochester

Saw this last night. I was familiar with the story in that I already knew the McDonald brothers started it, Kroc took the ball and ran with it, and shortchanged the brothers big time. The details were a mystery.

Good movie. An interesting transition with Kroc going from a sympathetic character at the beginning to an anti-hero that is screwing everyone around him including another guy's wife.

Was in the Chicago area last week and saw the store they called #1 even though it wasn't the first store. It was actually Kroc's first store and the ninth overall. It now sits as a museum in it's original state.

Mike86

That's kind of the messed up thing about Kroc. The fact that he just took all the credit and made it seem like McDonald's only started when he did his first store. I can see where maybe he viewed it as he's the one who really got things going but still. The brothers should have gotten more credit and been recognized as the people who had the idea and first restaurant.

JimRochester

He was really just the salesman. He did fine tune the franchise system that had failed previously. But he didn't really start to make money until they started with the real estate and that was someone else's idea or recommendation as well.

Troy Stiffler

Heads up this is on Netflix.

bluetoast

Yeah just spotted and saw it yesterday. Pretty by-the-numbers in the direction, but good job by Keaton.

TGM

just saw it... very good and interesting movie. Kroc was a dick but he could've been a bigger dick if he just stole the idea.

TheDude

Saw The Founder last year. Very impressive! This is an extremely well-done, entertaining, and educational film. I'm a moderate fan of McDonald's food, and after seeing Super Size Me years ago, don't eat there that often - LOL.

I always like movies set in the 1950's, and this really recreated the time period quite well re: the fashion, cars, hair, clothes, etc.

Prior to seeing the film, I knew very little about the beginning(s) of McDonald's - it was interesting to see that the McDonald's Brothers created a business model that was innovative for the time, i.e. a non-drive through casual "restaurant" that served decent food (if you think that Mickey D's food is decent - LOL) quickly & cheaply. It seemed fairly simplistic, but they were really the first ones that thought up the idea.

Prior to seeing the film, I always thought that Ray Croc actually created the whole concept, but didn't want to call it "Croc's" because it didn't sound "marketable". I did not know that he essentially "stole" the great & innovative ideas about fast food & fast service that the McDonald brothers came up with, as well as the company itself from them - truly reprehensible. What a P.O.S. Croc was.



I also never knew that McDonald's used powder packets to make milk-shakes at one time, to cut costs (but obviously no longer do). Interesting.

B5Erik

The one thing that I keep coming back to with the whole, "Ray stole the franchise from the McDonald brothers," thing is this - when the franchisees were losing money the McDonald brothers refused every single suggestion Ray would make to help those franchises become profitable. They did so seemingly out of spite because they didn't like Ray. Now if there is any truth to that then they kind of deserved to have the franchise stolen from them. You don't let people pay you money like that and then basically say, "Screw you if you can't make a profit, you can't change ANYTHING!"

How accurate are the portrayals in the movie? Who knows? None of us were there. But if there is even a shred of fact to the portrayal of the McDonald brothers then they aren't just innocent victims - they gave Ray no alternative. It was either force the brothers out or have all the franchisees go out of business and lose a ton of money in the process.

I don't think either party came off particularly well, but Ray wasn't just looking out for himself, he was also looking out for the franchisees that he sold the idea to. There wasn't a clear cut, "Good guy and bad guy," in the story.

TGM

http://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/founder/

B5Erik

It looks like most of what was in the movie was fairly accurate. Although that page doesn't address the part about the McDonald brothers refusing to let the franchisees make any of Kroc's suggested changes to improve profitability, I would imagine that there is some truth to it (given how most of the rest of the movie was fairly accurate, factually).

So both sides were both heroes and villains. It wasn't black and white - there was a lot of grey.

TGM

just like the burger meat

Count Dooku

This is a movie that sneaks up on you with how good and interesting it is.

Just sat down this afternoon and happened upon it streaming on Pluto TV and was immediately sucked in.

No one is ever going to say this is a great movie or their favorite movie, but well-made and well-acted telling a good story goes a long way.

RocShemp

I personally love this movie and like that, although he did some shady things, they honestly portray how Kroc took McDonald's from what it was to the franchise we know. Keaton was fantastic in this.

DeanoBKN

My wife and I caught this in theaters and both loved it. Thinking back now, we probably watched it another 4-5 times since, either on Blu or just by coming across it while finding sometimes to watch on a streaming service.

Back in 2017, while vacationing in California & on our way to Las Vegas, we decided to take a detour and visit the first McDonalds location in San Bernardino which is now an unofficial museum of sorts. Tons of cool stuff to see and the owner was very friendly and clearly loved the boost in attendance the film brought him.

OldBoy

I don’t remember too much, but I know I liked it a lot. MK can do no wrong imo.

Crocker Jarmen

I saw this when it came out, and my reaction was, "Meh, it was okay." But for days afterwards I kept thinking about the movie, and the characters, which makes me reconsider The Founder works a lot stronger than I initially thought. Even now I remember it very well.

Orbi-Wan Techno

Wife and I saw it on an online channel that our Samsung TV has. We enjoyed it very much, and Michael Keaton was perfectly cast.