My choice for the most resonant movie quote of 2012 could have come courtesy of Bane from "The Dark Knight Rises" but as you shall see if you read the article, I had other things in mind. Well, maybe not so much other things. I reserved Bane for his leading appearance in the most resonant movie scene of 2012.
Besides, it is in the plurality of commentary that Bane most resonates with the history of 2012, such as it was. The full extent of what 2012 will be remembered for will not come to fruition until we are all of us long gone dead. One certainly hopes that will not be the case, but then again, let us allow Bane to come to the fore and speak for himself. To Loki I give the most sadly resonant sentence of the year. Bane needs an entire paragraph and not just because you may have only actually found 77% of legible.
"We take Gotham from the corrupt! The rich! The oppressors of generations who have kept you down with myths of opportunity, and we give it back to you... the people. Gotham is yours. None shall interfere. Do as you please. Start by storming Blackgate, and freeing the oppressed! Step forward those who would serve. For an army will be raised. The powerful will be ripped from their decadent nests, and cast out into the cold world that we know and endure. Courts will be convened. Spoils will be enjoyed. Blood will be shed.."
2012 was an election year. Elections in other countries in the past few years have witnessed full scale turnabouts from the past direction toward the charting of a course for a new direction. Of course, elections in other countries have forwarded candidates who represent different parties in more than name only.
We need a Bane in this country, minus the psychosis. His name is NOT Obama despite what those in the other party with a different name but essentially the exact same positions on economics would have you believe. What makes the scene where Bane lets loose the dogs of war upon the elitist scum urinating on Americans resonate so deeply is that looking at the Blackgate prison with its drug dealers and rapists and murderers reminds me less of the Bastille than of the prison where all those responsible for the economic meltdown of 2008 are not.
Remember when I asserted that the most resonant movie scene of 2012 will be one whose full extent will not be felt until we are all of us long gone dead? That is because the day will certainly come when those watching this scene from "The Dark Knight Rises" will look at each other and laugh. For them, Bane's words of revolution will have a different kind of resonance. As for us, they will watch Bane and then poke each other in the ribs and say, "Really? Back in 2012 the richest 1% did not have a private army protecting them from the oppressors of their generation? You mean, 99% of this country were happy listening to Justin Bieber, watching Jimmy Kimmel and complaining about replacement football referees when there was absolutely no line of defense stopping them from taking back what the 1% had stolen from them. No wonder those rich guys were always seen laughing whenever a picture was taken of them."
For more from Timothy Sexton, check out:
Tom Hardy as Bane: Physical Transformation as Psychopathology
Tom Hardy's Brave Vocal Risk: Bane as Sovereign of the Sewers