Warner Bros. recently confirmed that the scenes in The Dark Knight Rises (2012) where Bane was doing something with some type of string was a reference to Madame Defarge’s knitting in Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities. The revelation ties together several aspects of the film that connect to the Dickens book, including similarities between Defarge and Bane, Commissioner Gordon quoting A Tale of Two Cities at Bruce Wayne’s funeral, and similar endings of sacrifice. We have not thought about a movie’s connection to a great work of literature since we thought about Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan‘s connection to a famous Herman Melville whale.
In light of this new information about Bane and Tom Hardy’s portrayal of the villain, Chimesfreedom figured it would be a good time to look back at some of the funnier videos about Bane in case you missed them the first time around. For example, in this video from Funny or Die, Chris Kattan imagines what life would be like for Bane were he in a normal job like telemarketing.
But even before the movie was out, Pee Wee Herman gave us his own impression of Bane as well as other characters in The Dark Knight Rises trailer. Check out the Pee Wee version of the trailer done for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
In one episode of South Park, Cartman invoked his inner Bane while using one of his own catchphrases.
In this video, comedian Sam Beman went through the Chick-fil-A drive thru to order some food as Bane. Check it out.
And there is my favorite, the tale of Bane Cat. Here is the original video featuring Bane Cat.
There is a Part 2 and “Christmas with Bane Cat” which you may watch on YouTube (although I much prefer the above episode over the sequels). And do not worry, as explained in the “making of” video, Bane Cat was not harmed during the making of the video.
What is your favorite Bane video? Leave your two cents in the comments.
On December 17, 1843, London publishing house Chapman & Hall published a novella called A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas. The novella, by Charles Dickens, would become a classic.
Charles Dickens had already found success from writing projects, including The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (1836), Oliver Twist (1838) and Nicholas Nickleby (1839). His new book, which he only started writing three months earlier in September 1843, was an immediate success, and many today credit it with reviving Christmas traditions in Victorian England.
We now know the book simply as A Christmas Carol. While it may seem odd that a book about ghosts would become a Christmas classic (instead of a Halloween story), Dickens was not the only one telling yuletide ghost stories. In Victorian England, it was a tradition to tell ghost stories around the fire on Christmas Eve. I guess many places still have that tradition, but it is now called, “watching A Christmas Carol on television.”
Adaptations of “A Christmas Carol”
Soon after the novella was published, people began adapting the story for theater productions. Dickens himself often gave readings of the book throughout his lifetime.
As technology changed, there were adaptations for radio and screens. Thomas Edison created an early silent version of the story in 1910.
One of the most famous movie versions of the book — and the most highly regarded in many quarters — is 1951’s Scrooge, starring Alastair Sim. Sim, who was born in Edinburgh in 1900 and starred in a number of projects on stage and screen before his death in 1976, had the perfect voice and face for Mr. Scrooge.
And now with modern technology, we can add the tradition of watching Scrooge on the Internet.
Other famous versions of the movie feature George C. Scott, Jim Carrey, and Albert Finney as Scrooge. The Alistair Sim one remains my favorite.
An American Christmas Carol
But I must admit I have a soft spot for a 1979 made-for-television movie called An American Christmas Carol, starring Fonzie himself, Henry Winkler as the Scrooge character named Benedict Slade.
Maybe I was at an impressionable age when I first saw An American Christmas Carol. Or maybe I liked the way it put a new twist on an old story by setting it during the Depression in New England.
You also may watch An American Christmas Carol below.
No matter who is your favorite Scrooge, may the future find that it always be said of him (or her), “that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!”
What is your favorite version of A Christmas Carol? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Seven years after the release of the excellent film Sideways director Alexander Payne released his follow-up film, The Descendants. I hear Oscar buzzing. . . .
Slate reconsidered Blue Velvet 25 years after the film’s release.
For Veterans Day, the Los Angeles Times chose the best war films from American cinema for each war.
The “Atlas Shrugged, Part 1″ producer is planning Part 2 despite the poor box office for the first movie.
Television Piers Morgan quit “America’s Got Talent” to focus on another talent show: the 2012 presidential election. In related news, Howard Stern might join “America’s Got Talent.”
The producer of next year’s Oscar telecast, Brett Ratner, stepped down after making a stupid gay slur. After Ratner’s announcement, the Oscar host, Eddie Murphy, announced he would no longer host the show, apparently because he had only agreed to do the show because he had worked with Ratner on Tower Heist. Vegas just announced that the payout on bets for “Eddie Murphy wins an Oscar in the next decade” went up 1000%.
Regis Philbin’s last week on Live! with Regis and Kelly will include guests Kathie Lee Gifford, David Letterman and Tony Bennett.
13-year-old “X Factor” singer Rachel Crow started out life in a crack house before she was adopted. Although I had been favoring Josh Krajcik to win, Crow’s performance this week was probably the best of the group.
Other News ‘Family Circus’ creator Bil Keane died at age 89.
Slate had an interesting discussion of “The New Classics,” enduring books, films, ideas, etc. since 2000.
“This is Nixon unplugged“is how Historian Stanley Kutler described new recordings of the former president available online for the first time, including Nixon’s grand jury testimony.
In honor of Joe Frazier, who passed away, Life magazine presented a slideshow of never-seen photos from “The Fight of the Century” of Ali vs. Frazier in 1971
Two new biographies about Charles Dickens are out. In related news, I have had a two-volume Dickens biography on my shelf for more than a decade that I have yet to read. Now, I do not know where to start. Maybe I will watch a movie. . .
What was your favorite pop culture story this week? Leave your two cents in the comments.
, and Albert Finney as Scrooge. The Alistair Sim one remains my favorite.
