63. Book and Movie Review : The Founder

I knew this film will rock the moment I saw the trailer of this movie. I knew i had to watch this film. But i have made this rule for myself that i always read the book first for the movies first for the movies that are based on books. It gives me better understanding of the film and also i could never read a book after watching the movie based on it. After I watch the movie, I know everything about it, the whole story, it kind of loses my interest in the book. But watching the trailer first ruined the book for me because although i had not seen the movie, i could exactly imagine every scene of the film shot by shot to the accuracy so much so that i felt a feeling of Dejavu when i watched the film later. 

I had previously read another book of Ray Kroc during my college days and it was called Behind the Arches. I loved it but i didn't know that there was another book which was much more interesting and less diplomatic than behind the arches. The book "Grinding it out" on which the movie is made seemed like it was written for the purpose of turning into film one day. No i am not saying that the author had such intentions, i am merely praising him for his interesting writing. The best part of the book and the movie that i liked was the imaginary Motivational speaker's lecture which Ray Kroc hears all the time to motivate himself. It was so to the point. If you have seen the film, then trust me, it is so true, perseverance beats talent any day. 

There is not much difference between the film and book and the film is a very exact representation of the book and Ray Kroc's life. Though i do feel that Ray Kroc might not have been such person. The character portrayed by Micheal Keaton was good and he acted really well but sometimes it was over the top and sometimes it reminded me of Johnny Depp's character in "Ed wood". He behaved exactly the same but in less confidence manner. I loved the screenplay of the movie and this is how screenplay should be written, tight and to the point, though the only problem was that there was too less breathing space for others actors to perform and characters to Grow. It was all about the lead character, Ray Kroc which kind of made the film very partial and one dimensional. The characters kept coming and going very fast that the moment you register them, their work in the film is over. You feel motivated by the time film ends, you want to go to McDonalds and eat their burger and verify whether the four drops of ketchup and mustard and two pieces of lettuce is true but after fifteen minutes of watching the film, the impact of the film starts to wear out. The reason being, Ray in the film faces several problems and the solutions always comes to him served in the plate. In the film it looks like, too many great coincidences happened to him which i refused to believe. I think his life would have been much hard and his journey more valuable than seen in the film. Instead of perseverance, we see obnoxious wold like tendencies in his nature, which shifted his idle struggle to something which is very American, very capitalistic.

I don't know whether McDonald brothers were right or wrong, what i do know is that they were Steve Woznaik and Ray Kroc was Steve Jobs. He compensated them well but in the end, Ray Kroc turns out to be a opportunistic man who would anything for the sake of success. He even left his wife for a beautiful girl, which corroborates with his unethical and untrustworthy character. 

You might be thinking that i started the film on right note but slowly I have started pulling out the lose threads in the film. The Film is good, there is no doubt about it and there is nothing much i can say about its goodness but what matters here is whether it could be made any better, then my answer would be, Yes. It could have been a serious Oscar contender or which it might be, I don't know; but what i do know is that even after being complete loyal to the book, there was a little confusion in the characterization of the Ray Kroc in the Film.

My recommendation would be to watch the film and read the book because both of them deserves your equal time and both of them are worthy of your time.