If you're like me and millions of film buffs across the country, you're eagerly awaiting the Friday release of The Dark Knight Rises, the megahyped conclusion of Christopher Nolan's acclaimed Batman trilogy. And if you're familar with both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, you are aware Nolan has used his Batman epics to explore sensitive real world topics (The Dark Knight, in particular, addressed such topics as terrorism and reaction to terrorism, like Morgan Freeman's Lucius Fox at odds over Christian Bale's Batman's plan to use a massive wiretapping system to track the late Heath Ledger's utterly awesome Joker). And judging from the promos and what plot descriptions we've gotten, it seem Rises will be no different, with Tom Hardy's Bane targeting Gotham's corrupt wealthy elite and crashing the Gotham stock exchange in a terrorist attack while Ann Hathaway's Selina Kyle whispers sweet nothings into Batman's ears that sound ripped from Occupy Wall Street protests. Coming from Nolan, you'd expect nothing less and the film looks as terrific as its predecessors.
But what do you know, it doesn't sound too terrific to everyone's favorite bag of hate-spewing pus, Rush Limbaugh. On The Rush Limbaugh Show today, Limbaugh took the time to launch a broadside at Rises, but not for the reasons you might think. No, Rush seems to think that the movie is a super-duper secret attack on Mitt Romney and Bain Capital:
RUSH LIMBAUGH: Have you heard, this new movie, the Batman movies - what is it, the Dark Knigth Lights Up or something? Whatever the name of it is. That's right, Dark Knight Rises, Lights Up, same thing. Do you know the name of the villain in this movie? Bane. The villain in the Dark Knight Rises is named Bane. B-A-N-E. What is the name of the venture capital firm that Romney ran and around which there's now this make-believe controversy? Bain. The movie has been the works for a long time, the release date's been known, summer 2012 for a long time. Do you think that it is accidental, that the name of the really vicious, fire-breathing, four-eyed, whatever-it-is-villain in this movie is name Bane?
[...]
LIMBAUGH: Anyway, so this evil villain in the new Batman movie is named Bane. And there's now discussion out there as to whether or not this was purposeful, and whether or not it will influence voters. It's going to have a lot of people. This movie, the audience is going to be huge, lot of people are going to see the movie. And it's a lot of brain-dead people entertainment, the pop culture crowd. And they're going to hear "Bane" in the movie, and they are going to associate Bain. And the thought is when they start paying attention to the campaign later in the year, and Obama and the Democrats keep talking about Bain, not Bain Capital, but Bain, Romney and Bain, that these people will think back to the Batman movie - "Oh yeah, I know who that is." Where are some people who think it will work. There are some people think it will work. Others think - "You're really underestimating the American people who think that will work."
Yes, you heard that right. Apparently, Rush is under the impression that Christopher Nolan, Christian Bale, Tom Hardy and everyone else involved in the production of
Rises, in secret collusion with Obama and the Democrats, is planning to use the film and the villain Bane to give Mitt Romney a bad name. Because, you know, when you think of Mitt "Mommy, make the bad president stop picking on me!" Romney, you think of
this guy.
I'm not alone in thinking this is as asinine a comment Rush has ever made. Here's Mother Jone's commentary, which opens by asking "Is this the dumbest thing Rush Limbaugh has ever said? and goes further to explain Bane (B-A-N-E, not B-A-I-N):
Some context for the non-nerds: Bane the Batman villain was originally introduced by DC comics as part of a story arc that involves Batman being harried to exhaustion by having to deal with a rash of escaped supervillains. Baine inflicks a devastating defeat on Batman, who is too tired to fight back, breaking his back and leaving him in a wheelchair for a year. This happened in 1993. Almost 20 years ago. A guy named Bill Clinton was president.
To believe that Batman is a Hollywood conspiracy to elect Barak Obama, you'd have to believe that Bane creator Graham Nolan (COINCIDENCE?!?!?!) anticipated prior to Romney even annoucing a run for public office that Romney would eventually win the GOP primary in 2012, or that Christopher Nolan, anticipating all of this, chose to pick a villain whose name sounds like the company Romney used to work for.
Rush, please don't try film criticism again. It clearly isn't your strong suit.
Enjoy The Dark Knight Rises when it comes out Friday, everyone! Come for the action and drama, stay for the secret Romney-bashing!
P.S. The Dark Knight Lights Up? What the hell does Rush think the movie is, two and a half hours of Bale and Hardy seeing who can smoke a bag of weed the fastest?
P.P.S. "Four-eyed firebreathing whatever-it-is villain?" Does Rush think Bane is a bespectacled dragon?