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The Founder Movie Analysis

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Set in 1954, The Founder is a 2016 American biographical drama film that tells the true story of Ray Kroc’s involvement in the creation of the McDonald’s fast food chain. The movie begins with Ray Kroc, played by Michael Keaton, a struggling salesman who seems unsatisfied in his simple, unchanging life. He goes from restaurant to restaurant in the hopes of selling Prince Castle Multi-Mixer milkshake mixers. Every restaurant he tries to sell to is characterised by slow service, tedious serving methods and a customer base of predominately obnoxious and unruly teenagers. After receiving an exceptionally large order from a restaurant called McDonald’s, Ray decides to travels to California to personally deliver the mixers. It’s at this point that he comes across something that changes his life, the first McDonald’s. From the moment he arrives there, he realises that it is unlike any of the humdrum uninventive drive-throughs he is used to. Firstly, customers do not wait in their cars to be served, but rather they wait in neat lines to order their food from a serving window. He orders a burger, soda and fries for 35 cents and within seconds is served his food in a disposable paper bag, which he is able to eat anywhere he pleases. Whilst eating his food, he meets the two brothers that started the company, Mac and Dick McDonald (played by John Carroll Lynch and Nick Offerman).They offer him a tour around the restaurant and he is amazed by the revolutionary efficiency with which they operate. Ray becomes captivated by this thriving business and from the brothers, learns as much as he can about McDonald’s. Unable to stop thinking about McDonald’s, Ray realises that he wants to franchise it. After multiple discussions with the brothers, he is finally able to convince them to allow him to control the franchising of McDonald’s, whilst assuring them that they will retain full control over every decision made. He works persistently to make the McDonald’s franchises hugely successful, growing the company to a multimillion dollar company, all the while gaining more control over McDonald’s as a whole. As the success of the business grows it fuels his ambition and ego. He becomes selfish, divorcing his wife and looking for ways

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