This is a movie I wanted to see because of my own interest in the story. My first job, for which I received my first pay check, was at my local McDonald's in 1959 when I was 16 years old. As a high school student, I received 80 cents/hour. The McDonald's then was just like the one shown in the movie and I wanted to see how accurate the portrayal in the movie was. As it turns out, it was pretty accurate with buns, burgers. fries, a barrel from which the coke/root bear came, orange drink, and shakes. (The only difference I could find is that we wrapped the burgers in front of the customers and placed them in a warming bin until sold. There was no slide though from the grill to the warming bin as shown in the movie.)
At the time only young boys and men could work there. (That was just the rule back then.) Our uniforms consisted of a paper hat with "Speedy hamburger" logo on the side, a white shirt with the McDonald's logo on the pocket and sleeve and an apron (all of which we could get at work without any cost to us).
Most of us were familiar with the fact that Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton) discovered the idea of fast food from the original McDonald's brothers, Nick (Dick Offerman) and his brother Mac (John Carroll Lynch). What I was not familiar with was who Ray Kroc was, what his background was, and the overall story of how he finally "bought out the brothers."
The split was one that didn't happen overnight since Kroc and the McDonald brothers did try to work together for a while. The problem came with the idea of franchising the company all over the country, arguments of how to keep quality control over all the franchises and keeping the drive in the same as the McDonald's originally conceived of it.
All three men were innovative and contributed to the idea, but Ray Kroc was the one who wanted the company—with its Golden Arches as American iconic symbol of America: Why shouldn't the Golden Arches be as popular as the crosses on churches and the American flags on local community buildings? Kroc had been a town-to-town salesman of all sorts of things (from paper cups to multi-spindle milk shake machines) for years before he discovered McDonald's. But, he was a dreamer too. Though he lived he Illinois with his wife, Ethel (Laura Dern), he often spent more time on the road than he did at home.
This is not a essential movie by any means, but it is an interesting biopic about a man from the 1950s who was revolutionary in fast food franchising. He had to learn that franchising dealt not only with the industry itself but also real estate dealing too.
At the time only young boys and men could work there. (That was just the rule back then.) Our uniforms consisted of a paper hat with "Speedy hamburger" logo on the side, a white shirt with the McDonald's logo on the pocket and sleeve and an apron (all of which we could get at work without any cost to us).
Most of us were familiar with the fact that Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton) discovered the idea of fast food from the original McDonald's brothers, Nick (Dick Offerman) and his brother Mac (John Carroll Lynch). What I was not familiar with was who Ray Kroc was, what his background was, and the overall story of how he finally "bought out the brothers."
The split was one that didn't happen overnight since Kroc and the McDonald brothers did try to work together for a while. The problem came with the idea of franchising the company all over the country, arguments of how to keep quality control over all the franchises and keeping the drive in the same as the McDonald's originally conceived of it.
All three men were innovative and contributed to the idea, but Ray Kroc was the one who wanted the company—with its Golden Arches as American iconic symbol of America: Why shouldn't the Golden Arches be as popular as the crosses on churches and the American flags on local community buildings? Kroc had been a town-to-town salesman of all sorts of things (from paper cups to multi-spindle milk shake machines) for years before he discovered McDonald's. But, he was a dreamer too. Though he lived he Illinois with his wife, Ethel (Laura Dern), he often spent more time on the road than he did at home.
This is not a essential movie by any means, but it is an interesting biopic about a man from the 1950s who was revolutionary in fast food franchising. He had to learn that franchising dealt not only with the industry itself but also real estate dealing too.