Dark Knight Rises: Bane character part of political plot against Mitt Romney | Film | guardian.co.uk

 

Dark Knight Rises: Bane character part of political plot against Mitt Romney |

When Christopher Nolan announced two years ago that the character Bane would be Batmans nemesis in The Dark Knight Rises, more than a few eyebrows were raised. While the villain has played a prominent role in the caped crusaders comic book canon, he is not nearly so well known as traditional bad guys such as Joker, Penguin or the Riddler. Now, the real reason behind the hulking antagonists deployment in Nolans forthcoming superhero blockbuster has been revealed – at least, in the mind of the rightwing US commentator Rush Limbaugh: its all a thinly veiled attack on Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.According to Limbaugh, who was speaking on his syndicated radio show on Tuesday, “Bane” is designed to get Americans thinking about “Bain” Capital, the investment fund that Romney founded in 1984. The presidential hopeful is currently embroiled in a political spat with Barack Obamas team, who have accused him of being in charge during a period in which the private equity firm made a high number of layoffs at the companies it owned. Romney says he left the firm before the layoffs occurred.”So this evil villain in the new Batman movie is named Bane. And theres discussion out there as to whether or not this was purposeful and whether or not it will influence voters,” said Limbaugh. “A lot of people are going to see the movie. And its a lot of brain-dead people – entertainment, the pop culture crowd – and theyre going to hear Bane in the movie and theyre going to associate Bain.”And the thought is that when theyre going to start paying attention to the campaign later in the year and Obama and the Democrats keep talking about Bain, not Bain Capital but Romney and Bain, that these people will start thinking back to the Batman movies: Oh yeah, I know who that is!”Back in reality, Bane was not invented by Nolan for The Dark Knight Rises but first rose to prominence in the 1993 Batman comic book series Knightfall, in which he breaks Bruce Waynes back. Unless the British director had the ability to see into the future in 2010 when he was finalising his plans for the new film, it seems unlikely that he decided on utilising the villain for political reasons. Then again, Nolan began his superhero trilogy with 2005s Batman Begins, featuring a sinister organisation named The League of Shadows, known for manipulating events in order to forge the future in its own image.