The Founder (DVD) : Review

Film

The Founder. A biographical drama, telling the story of Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton – American Assassin, Spider-Man: Homecoming). Ray is a salesman who has a chance encounter with two brothers, Dick (Nick Offerman – Sing, Hotel Transylvania 2) and Mac McDonald (John Carroll Lynch – Jackie). who have created an innovative fast food eatery, McDonald’s. The film shows how this was turned into the biggest restaurant business in the world, bringing together a combination of ambition, persistence and ruthlessness.

The history told in The Founder, about the global franchise that has likely been visited by the majority of the films viewers, is a rather stark look at the harsh reality of the cut-throat business world, where deals and the law are a chess game, and one has merely to out manoeuvre one’s opponent, whether they be friend or foe.

The totally ruthless portrayal of Ray, by Keaton, is a show of acting talent, as one grows to despise the character for his ways, yet admire him for his cunning and ideas.

The Founder is an engrossing film. It might not be one that would stand up to multiple views, but it is indeed one that many would find interesting, delivered in a well rounded package of cinema, acting, and story.

A great film, marred by a terrible disc. Try catch this somewhere, somehow. Just not on DVD, in the current state that it’s in.

Disc

Over all, the disc is of a poor technical quality, given the way the video seems to have been processed in the workflow of getting the film from cinema to DVD.

This is a great pity, as the main feature itself is a good, engrossing story, with some top talent.

The Founder is available now, to purchase in disc, in South Africa.

Video

Video for the main feature is encoded at a decent average bitrate, but there appears to be a big fault in the telecine process. It seems that the video for The Founder uses a telecine repeat method, making for an apparent slow frame rate, that looks as if it is somewhere between 15 and 20 frames per second. While technically the disc is a 25 FPS disc, this method of telecine, if it were indeed the method used, is one that should only be used when previewing discs, before they are sent out to be commercially pressed.

Whether this is the case, or not, the video appears to strobe, with movement being far from smooth, and on a subjective note, leads to some eye strain and a headache. Viewers with photo-sensitive epilepsy would to well to check before viewing this film.

All in all, this video encoding issue ruins the disc, and while it is still watchable, this is not without its own drawback, so be forewarned.

Perception of the slower apparent frame rate, or strobe effect is subjective, to a degree, and dependent on each persons own visual sensitivity.

Audio

Audio is presented in a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, with a stereo 2.0 downmix as an option. Audio is encoded at a high average bitrate.

Dialogue is clear via the centre speaker, with the weight of the soundtrack carried by the front channels. Use of the surrounds is infrequent, but this is understandable, given the genre of the film.

Navigation

Navigation comprises of a static main menu, with accompanying music. There are text menu options to play the main feature, for audio, and for chapters.

The audio menu leads to a sub-menu with text options to select 5.1 surround, or 2.0 stereo.

The Chapters link leads to sub-menus, with four motion, colour thumbnails each, for a total of twelve chapters. While the thumbnails are numbered, they are not labelled, and could have been a bit bigger, meaning there is an amount of guesswork when trying to navigate to a particular part of the main feature.

Bonus Features

There are no bonus features on the disc, except for trailers for Krotoa, Vaselinetjie, and The Promise which auto-play at the beginning of the disc.

These can be fast forward, or skipped, individually, but are not accessible again from any menu on the disc.

By Andrew Germishuys

Founder of SAMDB | Actor | Armourer | Tech Enthusiast With over two decades in the film industry, I'm a seasoned actor and skilled armourer. I hold numerous certifications in acting and filmmaking, complemented by degrees and diplomas in IT and technology, giving me a unique blend of creative and technical expertise. When I'm not on set or in the workshop, you'll find me immersed in the world of gaming and VR, fuelling my passion for cutting-edge technology. Connect with me: X / Twitter Facebook Instagram Mastodon Threads Explore my work on SAMDB IMDb