LIMBAUGH ALLEGATION:THE WRITER and director of the latest film of the Batman franchise, The Dark Knight Rises, has rejected claims by extreme conservative US radio personality Rush Limbaugh that Batman's nemesis in the film, Bane, is just a liberal attempt to smear the Republican Party presidential candidate presumptive, Mitt Romney.
On Tuesday on his radio programme, Limbaugh had said: “Have you heard this new movie, the Batman movie, what is it, ‘The Dark Knight Lights Up’ or whatever the name 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 in 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 named Bain?”
However, it was quickly pointed out that the character Bane first appeared in the Batman comic books in 1993.
Christopher Nolan, the director who has now completed a trilogy of Batman films, expressed mystification at Limbaugh.
“I’m not sure how to address something that bizarre, to be honest,” he said. “I really don’t have an answer for it, it’s a very peculiar comment to make.”
Actor Morgan Freeman, who stars in the film, called the comment “ridiculous” and added: “Chris wrote a fictional story that didn’t have any political thoughts in mind, so it’s like art or something, you know – it’s all in the mind of the beholder.”
Limbaugh later tried to backtrack by saying: “I never said that the villain was created by the comic book character creator to be part of the 2012 campaign. I said that Democrats were going to use it, which they are.”
– (Agencies)