‘The Founder’ director on parallels between Trump and McDonald’s kingpin Kroc

By Victoria Ahearn, The Canadian Press

TORONTO – When director John Lee Hancock started shooting “The Founder,” about how Ray Kroc built the McDonald’s empire from a small burger chain launched by two brothers, Donald Trump had not yet announced his candidacy for U.S. president.

Parallels between the two real-estate moguls did not come to mind during production, he says. But that’s changed.

With the film hitting theatres on Friday, the same day as the presidential inauguration, a plethora of articles have emerged comparing Trump and Kroc.

Hancock says he now sees the links.

“They’re both businessmen, both very aware of branding and the power of a branded name,” he said in a recent phone interview, adding that they both also tried to get “the masses to rise up with populist words.”

“I have to say that it was one of those things where through the lens I’m looking through now, I went, ‘Oh, I do see that comparison a little bit.'”

Michael Keaton stars as Kroc, who is a 52-year-old struggling salesman from Illinois when he meets the McDonald brothers Dick and Mac in 1954.

The brothers, played by Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch, are running a burger operation with an ingenious “speedy system” assembly line in Southern California. Kroc wants to capitalize on the business and becomes their franchising agent.

Kroc eventually severs ties with them and buys up land for future McDonald’s sites as well as the brothers’ stake in the company. He became its owner, president and CEO.

The film states that the brothers never received their royalties.

Laura Dern plays Ray Kroc’s first wife, Ethel. Linda Cardellini is in the role of Joan Smith, who was married to a McDonald’s franchisee when she had an affair with Kroc. The two later married.

Robert Siegel wrote the script.

“We wanted to be fair to Ray Kroc and as accurate as possible with the story,” said Hancock, director of “Saving Mr. Banks” and “The Blind Side.”

“By fair to him, I don’t mean that you shine only a pretty light on it but also a harsh one where necessary. So just trying to be accurate.”

The story will undoubtedly leave viewers feeling conflicted, he admitted.

On the one hand, Kroc was a savvy entrepreneur who seized an opportunity.

“There are certain things that I really admire about Kroc,” said Hancock. “Everyone always said he was the hardest-working person they ever met, so you have to admire that.

“And he was a guy who was — toward the latter years of his work experience, his work life — was thinking, ‘Why not me? How come it hasn’t come to me? I want this and I’m willing to work for it,’ and so when he sees an idea, he gloms onto it.”

On the other hand, the Kroc portrayed in the film also seems like a villain who took advantage of the McDonald brothers.

In one scene, one of the brothers collapses from kidney issues and Kroc goes to his hospital bed to hand him a blank cheque saying he wants to buy them out.

“When you compare the McDonald’s brothers and what they wanted to do, look, they were a company, they were capitalists, their goal was to make money,” said Hancock.

“They were doing it on their own terms, though, with their own philosophy. It’s no different than McDonald’s in terms of the final goal, which is to make money.

“The McDonald’s brothers wanted some growth and Ray Kroc wanted exponential growth on steroids. So their goal was the same, it was just their impulses were different and their philosophies were different.

“It’s a couple of different ways to skin the capitalist argument, I guess.”

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