The Founder
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The Founder |
| Original title | The Founder |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2016 |
| length | 115 minutes |
| Age rating |
FSK 0 JMK 0 |
| Rod | |
| Director | John Lee Hancock |
| script | Robert D. Siegel |
| production |
Don Handfield , Jeremy Renner , Aaron Ryder |
| music | Carter Burwell |
| camera | John Schwartzman |
| cut | Robert Frazen |
| occupation | |
| |
The Founder is an American film from 2016 . Directed by John Lee Hancock , the screenplay was written by Robert D. Siegel . The leading roles are Michael Keaton , Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch . The film is based on the true story of McDonald’s and their founders Richard and Maurice McDonald and Ray Kroc . It is the film adaptation of the book The True Story of McDonald’s .
action
Ray Kroc was not particularly successful as a representative for milkshake mixers in 1954. When a restaurant orders six of its mixers, he initially considers this to be a mistake. When he called the brothers Dick and Mac McDonald, they increased the order to eight of his mixers. In order to get an idea of the apparently very successful restaurant of the McDonald brothers, Ray drives across the USA to San Bernardino .
Ray is fascinated by the restaurant concept at McDonald's: there is a long line of customers in front of the restaurant, but unlike many other restaurants, customers pick up their food themselves at the order counter - there are no wait staff. The food is sold in paper bags - there are no dishes or cutlery. But the waiting times are much shorter than at other restaurants. Mac McDonald willingly shows Ray his restaurant and explains the concept to him. Ray takes Dick and Mac McDonald out to dinner to hear their story.
While eating, Dick and Mac tell their life story, how they changed their drive-in restaurant into a self-service restaurant and how they had to take setbacks from time to time until their restaurant was finally successful. Ray finally suggests that the McDonald brothers expand their concept as a franchise to many restaurants. The previous attempts by the McDonald brothers with franchise restaurants have not been successful.
Ray sees great potential in the restaurant system and the design designed by Dick McDonald for the restaurants and can finally convince the two of them to give him the franchise rights by contract. In the contract, the McDonald brothers secure extensive say so that they retain control over the operation of the restaurants. In order to receive the money for the first new opening, Ray mortgages his house because he has not received any money from banks in any other way. Ray solicits friends for more restaurants. After the first openings, Ray threatens to lose control of the restaurants, as the menu does not meet the specifications of the McDonald brothers everywhere and the cleanliness of the restaurants is poor. For other restaurants, Ray recruits operating couples who not only provide the money, but also organize the daily business in the respective restaurant.
Changes to the restaurant concept that Ray wants to make regularly fail due to resistance from the McDonald brothers. Ray would like to make the milkshakes from instant powder in the future in order to save costs. Ray has now opened 13 restaurants and is becoming increasingly successful. He still runs into economic difficulties because he neither owns the restaurants nor any other assets and, according to the contract with the McDonald brothers, he only receives a relatively small share of the franchise fees from the restaurant operators. The financial advisor Harry Sonneborn suggests Ray buy the land for the restaurants himself and then lease it to the restaurant operators. This should also give Ray more influence over the restaurants. Ray creates a new property management company without involving the McDonald brothers. The McDonald brothers see it as a violation of their contract with Ray.
Ray tries by all means to increase his influence on the restaurants at the expense of the McDonald brothers. Since Ray is now running a nationwide company with large estates and the McDonald brothers still only run their restaurant in San Bernardino, the McDonald brothers finally agree to acquire the complete rights to the restaurant concept and the McDonald’s name for 2.7 million US dollars. Selling dollars to Ray.
The McDonald brothers are allowed to keep their restaurant in San Bernardino, but they are no longer allowed to use the name "McDonald's". After the takeover, Ray opens his own restaurant directly opposite the McDonald brothers’s restaurant, ultimately driving their restaurant into bankruptcy. Ray was not only concerned with the promising restaurant concept of the McDonald brothers, but also with the use of the name "McDonald's" for his restaurants.
reception
“It's a film about the reluctant forces of American entrepreneurship, perhaps also about its transformation: on the one hand, the hard and honest work, inspired by the spirit of innovation, which made the dream of rags-to-riches come true; on the other hand, there is the unlimited greed of the super capitalist who 'thinks in gigantic, science-fiction dimensions instead of big,' as screenwriter Robert Siegel put it in Los Angeles. "
“Hancock tells this American success story without anti-capitalist poses or bitter cynicism. Sure, a screenwriter like Aaron Sorkin , who worked with Steve Jobs and The Social Network to deconstruct the founding myths of Silicon Valley, would probably have seared the subject more sharply. Hancock relies on ambivalence and a smooth narrative tone that snuggles almost comfortably to the pastel-colored ideal world clichés of the 1950s. "
literature
- Ray Kroc, Robert Anderson: McDonald's. The true story of founder Ray Kroc. Translated from the English by Almuth Braun. FinanzBook Verlag, Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-95972-057-1 .
Web links
- The Founder in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Certificate of Release for The Founder . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; test number: 163118 / K).
- ↑ Age rating for The Founder . Youth Media Commission .
- ↑ Nina Rehfeld: From hand to mouth. April 19, 2017. Retrieved August 20, 2017 .
- ↑ Martin Schwickert: The great Big Mac vision. April 19, 2017. Retrieved August 20, 2017 .