‘The Hour’ is about a new current-affairs show on BBC in 1956, and what happens in the lives of the team members involved in the making of the show. The series takes us through the journey of the show from a staid newspaper presentation to the visual and ‘breaking’ news reportage. With spies, honey traps and corruption thrown into the mix, danger is just around the corner for the intrepid Producer Isabel (Bel) Rowley ( Romola Garai) , and the journalist Frederick (Freddie) Lyon ( Ben Whishaw).
Well written and acted, this series is a good watch. The only crib being at times, the writers try too hard to fit it into the thriller genre, and dumb down the proceedings a bit (like the last episode of season 2). But in the end, it is still engaging enough and keeps you hooked throughout.
In the world that surrounds me, Bob Iger, Ted Sarandos, Tim Cook and Eddie Cue, Jeff Bezos. These are the greatest of them all. And one that I had a very bumpy relationship with was Steve Jobs. I made that very first deal for Pixar at Disney, the three picture deal that started with Toy Story. And I don’t know how many people this is true of, I’m told it’s not a lot, that in Steve Jobs’ world, people fell into one of two categories. You either were a shithead or a genius, and I had the distinction of having been both several times. I’m told that usually when you’re a shithead you never recover. And those were literally the words. I kind of ping ponged back and forth. No question [Steve Jobs was] brilliant, inspiring.
Years after the brothers sold to Mr. Kroc, someone asked Richard McDonald if he had any regrets. None, Mr. Halberstam relates. ‘I would have wound up in some skyscraper somewhere with about four ulcers and eight tax attorneys trying to figure out how to pay all my income tax,” Mr. McDonald replied.
Source: NYTimes.com
Towards the end of the movie, ‘The Founder’, Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton) says some uncharitable words to the two McDondald brothers who actually started the first McDonalds’s joint and put together the Speedee System. Going by the above NY Times article and the book “Behind the Golden Arches”, it is difficult to imagine if a) Ray Kroc actually said it b) it was so easy for Ray Kroc to put together the money to buy off McDonald brothers.
Barring these two, ‘The Founder’ pretty much captures the entrepreneurial spirit of 50 something Ray Kroc and does a good job of presenting how he takes the idea from McDonald brothers and creates a nationwide fast food chain around it. The movie showcases his trials and tribulations, his epiphanies, and his personal transformation, and Michael Keaton delivers a good performance. There is a good deal of coverage about his team and their contribution–Harry Sonnenborn coming up with the real estate investment model, Fred L. Turner who became chairman of the company and June Martino, who started off as a book keeper grew along withe company.
What the movie misses out or rather omits, are the many innovations and backward integration that the company was involved in under Ray Kroc’s leadership and the overseas expansion of the brand. One has to read to the book ‘Behind the Arches’ to get a better idea of these.
Even without these, ‘The Founder’ is a good watch, and a must watch for all the entrepreneurs.
