A better title for the movie would be...
"The Swindler".
shareNah, that would have been far too obvious.
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MovieChat Forums > The Founder (2017) Discussion > A better title for the movie would be...
Depends. The ambiguity in the title “Founder” is befitting. Had Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton) not gotten involved, the McD cooperation would never have been. So I dare support that he was indeed the founder of the McD’s. The actual McD brothers founded nothing but some burger joint that inspired what later became... anyway, it is a clever and ambiguous title. Interesting story.
shareExactly.
shareagree w HAL. The two of them did not know how to control the people they did franchise out to re image/consistency. Kroc founded what we do know as McDonalds.
shareSuch is capitalism.
shareI don't look at him as bad, at least the way the movie was made.
The original owners would not have had a giant business with their principles, which were good. So, he was trying to make the business a huge thing and succeeded by lowing quality, but still McDonald's is a good and fun little place to eat.
I saw him as a person trying to make things work.
I'm a very ethical person and if I was in his shoes I don't know what I would do but try to succeed.
Most people in the McDonald's brothers situation would not have cared what Ray did with the stores as long as they were profitable and not doing anything unethical. They were getting over 4% of the gross from each store and with over 200 stores and 40-50 more popping up every year they had it made. A really nice growing income forever! They were in San Bernadino getting all that income for doing almost nothing.
I commend them for their principles and standards but Ray was running them mainly to their standards and most were profitable.
Quality was really not lowered that much other than the powdered shakes which were not universal until after the brothers got bought out. McDonalds went back to real ice cream a few years later.
The McDonad's brothers had the idea yes but they did not know how to make it successful on a grad scale. Kroc was the one who knew how to make it flow properly. Without him it never would have come to be as we know it today.
So yes he is the founder of it being a global corporation.
How is it swindling when he had a contract with them to develop franchises? A contract meaning both parties agreed to it?
Then he bought the brand for $2.7M. That's $23M today.
The McDonald's brothers were naïve enough to think they could manage hundreds even thousands of stores from California. When they realized they did not have that kind of power they sold out.
They retired rich and while I would have let them have that one store under their name they sold everything else.
What happaned after 1961 had nothing to do with them. they were not responsible for Mcdonalds adding 20,000 more stores and expanding around the world.
Good remarks here about why Kroc was not "a swindler."
I'd add that, at least the way he's depicted in the film, Kroc genuinely thought McDonald's provided a real opportunity to hardworking families to make something for themselves. It wasn't just "more and more money for Kroc." Like when he saw that Jewish man busting his ass trying to sell Catholic bibles. And the whole "Do it for AMERICA" quip.
Excellent point.
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