This summer’s much-anticipated Hollywood blockbuster, “The Dark Knight Rises,” is getting an unusual boost from Democrats and other foes of Mitt Romney who are eager to tie the Gotham crushing villain to the GOP presidential candidate. Their angle: the mask-wearing, “Venom” gas breathing bad guy has a name that sounds just like Romney’s former investment firm that President Obama has been blasting as a jobs killer.
“Bane” is the terrorist in the new movie who drives the caped crusader out of semi-retirement in the final Batman movie. Democrats, who believe they have Romney on the ropes over the president’s assault on his leadership at Bain Capital, said the comparisons are too rich to ignore.
“It has been observed that movies can reflect the national mood,” said Democratic advisor and former Clinton aide Christopher Lehane. “Whether it is spelled Bain and being put out by the Obama campaign or Bane and being out by Hollywood, the narratives are similar: a highly intelligent villain with offshore interests and a past both are seeking to cover up who had a powerful father and is set on pillaging society,” he added.
GOP advisor Frank Luntz seems to think the name was chosen to tweak Romney: “Hollywood does it again,” he told Secrets. “[Romney] had to know all this was coming and he should have done a lot more to prepare for it.”
Okay, wait just a minute, there, bub. I’m not a comic book nerd, and (I’m going to make some enemies admitting this) I’m not even a big fan of the Dark Knight movies, so I had to look this up: The character Bane, goes all the way back to 1993, long before anyone cared about Mitt Romney’s political aspirations:
Bane is a fictional character who appears in comic books published by DC Comics. The character’s origin was in Batman: Vengeance of Bane #1(January 1993)
I don’t think Hollywood can be blamed for using an established character’s name, even if it does sound like Romney’s former investment firm, Bain.
And it’s kinda funny that the Democrats are going to try to pretend Romney’s the villain in the Dark Knight, because if there is a parallel to be made regarding this movie and politics — it’s pretty much the opposite of what the Dems are saying it is. Moreover, if this movie turns out to be the blockbuster it’s predicted to be, everyone is going to know how ridonkulus the Dems are for trying this.
It turns out, Bane is the leader of Gotham’s version of an Occupy mob.
Who occupies this city? The 99 percent are a colony of men who’ve been discarded by society living and working in the sewers and subway tunnels, a literal underground of outcasts. They are janitors and delivery guys who are ignored and pass invisibly through halls of power. They are a cat burglar, Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway: One Day, Rio), who steals from the rich because it’s a good way for a clever girl to make a living. They are the idealistic young cop John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt: 50/50, Inception), whose romanticism will be shattered as he confronts the realities of his hero, police Commissioner James Gordon (Gary Oldman: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2). Gordon is on the other side, among the powerful who cheat and deceive: he has been abetting the elevation to City Savior of district attorney Harvey Dent and the demonization of the Batman, who took the fall for the crimes and sins of Dent at the end of The Dark Knight. (That’s no spoiler, even for those who haven’t seen the previous film: Gordon’s inner turmoil but ultimate decision to continue with the lie is one of the film’s opening gambits.) And of course there’s billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale: Public Enemies, Terminator Salvation). He has now turned recluse and is presumed to have gone all Howard Hughes, but over the course of this story — beautifully, bleakly written by Nolan and his returning Batman writers Jonathan Nolan and David S. Goyer — we will learn that even hidden away in his stately manor, he wields power, and that we cannot, should not trust to his good motives, for he likes to play god, or at least master of the universe.
What happens in such an unfair world? Enters a villain, the masked Bane (Tom Hardy: This Means War, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), who takes advantage of those who are hurting, those who have been taken advantage of. It takes only a little mass urban blackmail before Gotham is on Bane’s side, and despotism descends with the hurricane force of inevitability. The peasants of Gotham become a citywide mob, following a madman because it sounds like he understands them. It’s authentic French Revolution time. Nolan has said Rises was inspired by A Tale of Two Cities… except here, the two cities are merely the two sides of Gotham.
If Mitt is represented by anyone – he’s one percenter, Bruce Wayne, the billionaire who enters the fray when things get desperate, to save the city from the despotic, Jacobin, class warfare loving, Moonbat Messiah, Bane (which happens to rhyme with Hussein), who’s leading Gotham to French Revolution style pain.
Ace is blunter than I am:
One problem: Bane may sound like “Bain,” but when Bane talks, he talks like Obama. The whole plot of the movie is Bane’s attempt at “hope and change,” by which we mean violent revolution against the capitalist class.
Actually, I’m pretty sure Democrats know this, and are trying to steer people away the obvious comparison (that doesn’t help Obama) toward their weak and strained one (that helps Obama.) It’s called “misdirection”, and they do it all the time.
They always fool some of the people some of the time, which I guess makes it worth their time.
UPDATE:
Via Gateway Pundit:
The Batman villain creator called the Democrat attacks on Romney, “Ridiculous!”
The Washington Times reported:Comic book Writer Chuck Dixon created the character of Bane in the early 90′s and his reaction to the news above, according to his message board on his website Dixonverse.net, was “I saw it on FB like two hours ago. Ridiculous. Tho’ I got a cold feeling in the pit of my stomach that Rush may pick up on this. And that would be the second time he pegged me and Graham as liberals on his show.”
He later added, “Overgrasping Dems? Hey, if it gets Obama supporters into theaters. Maybe they’ll buy thousands of Bane toys to throw at Romney. It all adds to MY Bane capital. I wonder if the Romney campaign will contact me?”