Hungry For Profits!

A riveting new movie traces the transformation of McDonald’s from a single restaurant to a global food empire.

- Sandy Cook

IT’S as American as apple pie, a diner of dazzling efficiency where Big Macs and Happy Meals are speedily dispatched, kids cavort in cushioned play areas and teenagers mingle over milkshakes.

But behind the golden arches of McDonald’s lies a darker history – arags-to-riches tale of a man who ruthlessly turned a single fast-food restaurant into the global corporation it is today.

It’s a dossier of dashed hopes, destroyed marriages and ruthless ambition with a generous side order of pathos. And it’s now being told on the big screen.

The Founder stars Michael Keaton as Ray Kroc, the fast-talking, down-on-his luck Illinois salesman who pulled the mat out from under the feet of the original McDonald brothers.

“How the heck does a 52-year-old over the-hill milkshake-machine salesman build a fast-food empire with 1 600 restaurants and an annual revenue of $700 million [R9,4 billion]?” Kroc asks in the trailer for the film.

The Founder sets out to answer this question – and it’s not a pretty journey.

Viewers are taken back to the 1950s when Kroc is fruitlessly peddling his gadgets across America. He comes across a super-efficient burger restaurant in San Bernardino, California, run by a likeable pair of brothers, Mac and Dick McDonald (played by John Carroll Lynch and Nick Offerman).