By Fred Topel | Image property of Columbia Pictures.
We knew ever since they showed the poster with the black suit that Spider-Man 3 would give us a darker Peter Parker. But you have no idea what to expect when Spidey starts beating up Harry Osborn and using Gwen Stacy to make Mary Jane jealous. Even Sam Raimi had a hard time directing that.
Sam Raimi Talks Spider-Man 3
"In this story, Peter Parker falls victim to his own pride," Raimi said. "He starts to believe all the press clippings about himself, that he’s really this hero and someone great. He starts to be afraid that he isn’t that person and doesn’t want to act any other way than the person that’s right. That pride manifests itself in a much darker way. Working on those sequences with Tobey Maguire and the dark Spider Man, that was a difficult thing for me actually. It wasn’t fun for me because I didn’t like those sequences."
A fan himself, Raimi was conflicted about what he had to do. "I didn’t like watching Spider-Man go bad. It was unpleasant and I kept worrying, ‘Gee, do I really have to do this to show how rageful and vengeful he is? Do we really have to show how pride can destroy you?’ But, my brother [screenwriter Ivan Raimi] kept telling me, ‘Yes, because he’s going to find himself again."
Fortunately, there were some fun parts. Peter develops a sort of strut and flirts with ladies on the street in funny ways. "That was fun. I agree. I was referring more to the sequence of Mary Jane and the Jazz club or his treatment of Harry Osborne in that sequence."
Sam Raimi on Spider-Man 3
While his strut and dancing harkens back to Saturday Night Fever, Raimi calls that a coincidence. "Actually it was not an attempt to intimidate that great dance sequence, but I know people have said that to me."
Peter isn't the only one that has to overcome his personal issues. Still blaming Spider-Man for killing his father, Harry Osborn has a full arc in the third film too. "We wanted Harry Osborne, his good friend, that relationship with Peter Parker and him to be resolved by the third picture. We had obviously set up the scenes to have some dramatic confrontation and evolution in this third one and we knew in our heart that Harry was a good boy and good person and was just acting under the mistaken belief that Peter had killed his father in cold blood and perhaps wanting to hang on to the notion that his father was an honorable man and perhaps that he could still be the son his father wanted him to be if he acted a little more strongly and avenged his death. It wasn’t as simple as that for him. The truth comes out and he finds his true self."
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