By Cameron Hawkins
Spanning over 100 countries around the world, McDonald’s is the largest fast food chain in the world. “The Founder” tells the story of Ray Kroc, who comes across the original McDonald’s in San Bernardino, California, and makes a deal with the owners, Mack and Dick McDonald, to expand their restaurant to the Midwest.
Throughout this two-hour picture you experience the fast growth of the well-known restaurant chain as well as the passion that Kroc, played by Michael Keaton, puts into making McDonald’s the best it can be no matter the cost. As the movie progresses Kroc becomes corrupt and stops caring about the quality that makes McDonald’s such a hit; he only cares about what makes him more money.
“The Founder” is a wonderful film that taught me a lot about McDonald’s and its dark history, with a few unexpected turns. It is well written with numerous clever puns that relate to the future of McDonald’s and other popular fast food chains. Michael Keaton is great as Kroc. There are also entertaining performances from Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch as the McDonald brothers respectively.
The biggest problem with the film is its sense of time. It begins during 1956 and after that you really never know what year it is. The film jumps from city to city almost scene by scene so at times it gets a little confusing figuring out how far time has advanced.
If you enjoy films like “The Social Network”, then you will very much enjoy “The Founder”. It is always interesting learning about popular companies and seeing through film how they got their beginnings and what they had to go through to get to where they are today.
Cameron Hawkins is a Journalism student at the University of Nevada, Reno. He hopes to have a career in Film Journalism writing about news and reviews in the industry. He is also a saxophonist who has played for 12 years and is a member of the University of Nevada Marching Band as well as the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Music Fraternity. In his free time Cameron likes to watch movies, play video games, and read comic books.
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