The Founder (4½ Stars)

I can't help myself. This is a film have to keep returning to. Something about it fascinates me, and I can't even say what it is. Michael Keaton's acting is brilliant, but that's not it. It might be the squeaky clean atmosphere of America in the 1960's. It's a bright, almost too perfect world. The sun is always shining. There's never too much traffic. The streets are clean, except in scenes where Ray Kroc is picking up rubbish.

Maybe I'm fascinated by the success of greed. Ray Kroc says twice, at the beginning and the end of the film, that the most important word is persistence, but what characterises him isn't persistence, it's greed. He saw an opportunity, and he grabbed it without any consideration for others. He took as much as he could, and he gave as little as possible back. Dick and Mac McDonald had created something visionary. Ray wanted it, so he ripped it out of their hands. They were hard-working and naive. They weren't strong enough to deal with Ray Kroc. They were foolish enough to trust him.

I have to ask what's gone wrong with McDonald's as a company. It worked perfectly in the early days, before and after Kroc. In those days you ordered a burger, and it was given to you within 30 seconds. That's not possible any more, even when a restaurant is empty. The streamlined efficiency of the 1950's restaurants has been replaced by sluggish, disinterested workers in the 21st Century. Another problem is that the menu is too big. In the 1950's there was only one hamburger, with or without cheese.

Just look at that menu. What else do you need? Just make one hamburger and make it perfect.

This is a cheeseburger I bought at McDonald's last week. The bread was dry, the meat wasn't juicy, and the cheese tasted like plastic. It was so disgusting that I wasn't sure I wanted to eat it. Dick and Mac must be turning in their graves.

McDonald's has lost its way. Let's make McDonald's great again.

Success Rate:  + 1.4

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