Tag: Michael Keaton

Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton) negotiates with the McDonald brothers.

THE FOUNDER

Film Review by Marlene Ardoin

After seeing “The Founder”, I understand why Tom Hanks turned down this role. Only Michael Keaton would be able to nail this character.

Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton) is as despicable, as he is admirable.

Keaton is unafraid to try on flawed personalities, like Kay Kroc. This role requires big boy tighty–whities.

I might also add, it takes guts to develop a company like McDonalds, that now feeds about 1% of the world’s population.

In this film, Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton) is at a point in his life, when he is both hungry enough and desperate enough to act on his gut feelings to franchise McDonalds.

“The Founder” is inspiring by the fact that Ray Kroc’s peers were at the retirement stage, while he is still traveling state to state selling milk shake mixers and listening to Napoleon Hill’s “Keys to Success” records in his motel room in the evenings.

Somehow, he sensed that he had not yet fulfilled what he was created to do.

Soft serve was becoming the norm in the fast food industry, so Kroc’s mixers were not selling, except to one diner in San Bernardino, CA, who wanted six of his mixers.

The McDonald brothers were serving real ice cream in their milk shakes.

Richard “Dick” McDonald (Nick Offerman) and his brother, Maurice “Mac” McDonald (John Carroll Lynch), spent years perfecting quick, cheap, quality, family oriented, fast food meals at their take-out diner.

The McDonald brothers did try to franchise their diner, but they did not have the energy, the health, or the will to carry through.

Ray Kroc had seen the competition all over the United States, and he knew a winner when he saw one.

Kroc was not only franchising a method, but a quality product and a name that meant quality.

In sales, trust is a big factor. The customer has to trust you first, before they buy from you.

The McDonalds had that trust. Their name could be trusted. McDonalds meant quality, honesty, community, family and trust.

Kroc tries to work with the McDonalds in his efforts to franchise their product, but finds that he is doing all the work and taking all the risks.

And, on top of that, success and ego get the better of him.

Kroc ends up with three marriages.

The film leaves out the daughter from his first marriage and the second marriage that he has. The real story gets a little sordid, not as romantic, as the film would have us believe.

Kroc ends up buying out the McDonalds good name after a long period of torturing them first.

I have to agree, McDonalds does sound a lot better than, welcome to the Krocs.

Ray Kroc Biography:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Kroc

http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/bic1/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?zid=38c2ee89d1919f9df03372691f627ba7&action=2&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CK3436600323&userGroupName=fairfax_main&jsid=e075ae099668deaed5fb362e7ed0684a

http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/ray-kroc-164.php

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2/7/17 # The Founder

Spotlight, Child victim, Boston Globe

Breaking story in Boston Globe 2002, priests molesting children.

Spotlight, reporters with new editor.

Liev Schreiber as Marty Baron, the new editor, listens to reporters.

SPOTLIGHT

By Marlene Ardoin

Spotlight is also about diversity, low income children. One of the Best Picture Oscar nominees, Spotlight shows us the process of investigative reporters of the Boston Globe 2002 breaking a story of Catholic priests molesting children in their city. To be fair, this was not about all Catholic priests, just a few bad apples. But, those bad apples did plenty of damage and turned out to be more than originally suspected.

This film points out another example of where the weak are victimized by the strong. I assume the sexual exploitation of children from poor families by priests, started out small, then gradually grew to staggering numbers, worldwide. If the gatekeepers do nothing to stop it, it grows.

The children of poor families were easy pickings. Unfortunately, the vetting of priests was not very thorough at that time. And to be fair, the Catholic Church does a lot to help the poor, probably more than any other religion. Even today, the first thing one would suggest to a homeless person is to check with Catholic Charities.

The consequences of the victimization is heart rendering in this film. What resonated with me was the point that when you take away faith in religion from the poor, they are left without any kind of support system. What they turn to instead of religion is alcohol, drugs and suicide.

What the gatekeepers did at that time was to move the offending priests to new parishes, whenever problems were revealed. As a result, the priests had no feelings for or bonds with the communities that they served. I do not understand how anyone who has received religious training could do this. Why did they become priests in the first place? Was it a cover for their perversion?

The 4,392 priests who were accused amount to approximately 4% of the 109,694 priests in active ministry during that time. The report stated there were approximately 10,667 reported victims (younger than 18 years) of clergy sexual abuse between 1950 and 2002.

When sexual scandals involving Catholic priests in the US came to light in 2002, the Philippines media began reporting on abuses by local priests. In July of that year, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines apologized for sexual misconduct committed by its priests over the last two decades and committed to drafting guidelines on how to deal with allegations of such offenses. According to Archbishop Orlando Quevedo, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference, about 200 of the country’s 7,000 priests may have committed “sexual misconduct” – including child abuse, homosexuality and affairs – over the past two decades.

Stanley Tucci as Mitchell Garabedian, attorney, stood out for me. He was characterized as a bit of a character, but I would characterize him as noble. His clients were the victims, the poor families. One of the last scenes was of him greeting such a family in a kindly, upbeat manner, which was endearing. He was a priest in attorney clothing.

Liev Schreiber as Marty Baron, the new editor, also made an impression on me. He carried a persona of a do not mess with me, quite, but deadly, intelligent boss, who was not afraid to go to battle. Apparently, the molesting priest story got lost in the machine years earlier, but he saw the merit and the value to the paper’s readership, who were largely Catholic. He was raised Jewish, so the Catholics had no one to manipulate.

Mark Ruffalo as Michael Rezendes, reporter, Michael Keaton as Walter “Robby” Robinson, reporter, and Rachel McAdams as Sacha Pfeiffer, reporter, all did excellent work in their roles.

The story this film tells was a paradigm changer for the world. It came right after the 9/11 disaster, and changed how the world viewed children. The countries most affected included the USA, Canada, UK, Mexico, Belgium, France, Germany, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Tanzania, Philippines, Austria, Norway, Poland, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Slovenia and Sweden, to name a few.

3/8/2016 # Spotlight