The tacked on "Tale of Two Cities" crap was shallow window dressing in an attempt to make the film seem smarter than it was.
Plenty of movies make literary allusions. I dont think this makes the film in question seem smarter than it is (whatever that means). It just indicates that the filmmaker read a well-known book and incorporated some parallels.
Clueless was loosely based on Jane Austens
Emma;
West Side Story is a retelling of
Romeo and Juliet;
Jaws has obvious connections to
Moby Dick; and the only intellectual power needed to recognize the Moses/Christ comparisons to Superman is rough familiarity with the top bestseller of all-time.
If you recall,
A Tale of Two Cities was also evoked in
Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan. This was reasonably appropriate and satisfying - given the common theme of heroic self-sacrifice. Of course,
TDKR had a similar theme; and so allusions to the same novel were likewise appropriate. Indeed, more so since
TDKR (unlike
WofK) had more direct comparisons - in addition to self-sacrifice - to a rebellious uprising, class warfare and a city under siege.
And it should be noted that the only
explicit quote from
Two Cities was provided by Gordons eulogy (typically, an occasion where more flowery language is not only indulged but expected). And it begins with a less familiar and edited (but contextually relevant) passage:
I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss... I see the lives for which I lay down my life, peaceful, useful, prosperous and happy... I speculate that most folks didnt, at first, recognize the source. (Since it was a funeral, a religious tract might have been assumed.) Its only at the conclusion of the eulogy - when the more famous, final lines are uttered - that recognition dawns. And I wouldnt exactly characterize this as browbeating the audience with the literary/thematic comparisons.
