Peter Parker - People Get Up and Drive Your Funky Stuff - Spiderman 3 movie
Over the weekend I was pleasantly surprised to see that Spiderman 3 was being shown on UK terrestrial TV once more. I watched the film with glee which many people now enjoy. I am, to be honest, a big Spiderman fan and a Silver Surfer fan.
They are my favorite Marvel Comic characters ever. However, at the time of the movie's release (2007), it came in for some serious flack. The film that I am on about is the one and only Spider-Man 3. However, before I move on. I thought this movie was great. I and is better than what the film critics said about it.
Spiderman 3 was released within the year of 2007 and was produced by Marvel Comics and Laura Ziskin Productions.
The film director was none other than Samuel M "Sam" Raimi – who made his initial name in the Movie Business when he directed the Horror movie classic that is “Evil Dead” (1981).
After making the first 2 Spiderman movies (Samuel M "Sam" Raimi), which became box office successes in their own right; much was anticipated with the release of the 3rd movie which he was in charge of.
The film stars were - Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rosemary Harris, J. K. Simmons, James Cromwell, and Cliff Robertson in his final film appearance. Much of the same actors and actresses that had made the previous two Spiderman movies such a success in fact.
Set months after the events of Spider-Man 2, we see Peter Parker becoming a cultural phenomenon as Spider-Man within New York, and throughout the USA as a whole.
Mary Jane Watson continues her Broadway career. Harry Osborn supposedly Peter Parker's friend still seeks vengeance for his father's death, and the escaped Flint Marko falls into a particle accelerator and is transformed into a shape-shifting Sandman.
More woe continues for Spiderman and Peter Parker as an extraterrestrial particle falls from outer space to Earth and eventually bonds with Peter Parker, making his life changed for the worse.
Spiderman 3 premiered first at Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills, Tokyo, Japan in April 2007.
Within the UK it premiered on the 23rd of April 2007 at the Odeon Leicester Square, London, England, and finally, within the USA, it premiered took place at the Tribeca Film Festival in Queens on the 30th of April 2007, in New York, USA.
As mentioned above the movie critics gave the release of Spiderman 3 a hard time, as they felt that the film had included too many characters for the movie viewer watching the film to build any close relationship.
I tend to disagree. Yes, the movie was fast-paced at times, but most people could see what was going on and could make up their minds if they liked the new characters that were introduced into this film.
With that in mind, even though the critics gave the movie the thumbs down. The film was a roaring success financially. It is today (as we speak) the third highest-grossing movie for the Marvel franchise so far. It is only better by The Avengers and Iron Man 3 movies.
One of the most memorable scenes within this movie as there are so many; The scene that I like the most is where we see Peter Parker strutting down the street with enormous amounts of confidence, and I have to say “attitude” after being affected by an extraterrestrial particle (symbiotic to me or you).
Forget John Travolta strutting his stuff down a Brooklyn street (New York, USA) in the Saturday Night Fever Movie, and the song called (“Staying Alive" by the Bee Gees) was playing in the background.
Spiderman 3 equivalent is “People Get Up and Drive Your Funky Stuff” by James Brown (1973) which can be clearly heard within the film as Peter Parker (Toby McGuire) “gets his groove on”.
Whoever chose that music track for that scene got it spot on. It seemed to fit perfectly for that moment within the film. It made everyone smile when they see either for the first time or for the tenth time.
When Peter Parker is strutting down a busy street in New York, aided by the soundtrack from James Brown. Please, if you get the chance watch the film again. I am sure it will put a smile on your face.
Please go to YouTube to see the scene that I am talking about.
The track itself is from an old and obscure James Brown album called Slaughter’s Big Rip Off; which in itself was produced for the film of the same name called Slaughter’s Big Ripoff (1973).
Slaughter’s Big Rip-Off is a Blaxploitation film that was released during the 1970s Blaxploitation film era within the USA. It has to be said that the 1960s were truly turbulent times within America where race relations were concerned.
However, when the 1970s were reached; black filmmakers and actors/actresses began to become accepted within Hollywood.
The 1970s are often considered as being the highlight of the blaxploitation film era and of the change in thought concerning Race relations within the USA.
Jim Brown (The former American Football star), was now the star of movies such as Slaughter and also its follow-up Slaughter Big Rip-Off
Both of these movies made significant cultural changes within the USA.
Within these movies, Black actors and actresses were now being shown with a positive “can-do” attitude to their persona. Instead of being subservient all of the time within Movies of the time in general.
However, getting back to the Spiderman movie and the track made Peter Parker groove. We have to be grateful to James Brown for that because “People Get Up and Drive Your Funky Stuff” is so damm funky. It really is.
What a track that was and is. Pure Funk. Undiluted funk. The best kind of Funk which even Peter Parker (Spiderman) gets his groove on.
James Brown once said within the countless interviews that he took part was this "Aretha and Otis and Wilson Pickett was out there and getting big. I was still called a soul singer. I still call myself that but musically I had already gone off in a different direction. I had discovered that my strength was not in the horns, it was in the rhythm."(The James-Brown Biography - The Godfather Soul)
What he was trying to say was that the strength that he gained from the music was more funk than Soul. Was more Rhythm than Melody.
Peter, you can stop dancing now it’s finished? Peter????
Are you a fan of the Spiderman franchise? Are you still dancing to the track “People Get Up and Drive Your Funky Stuff” by James Brown? Did that scene make you smile when you first saw the film at the time?
What is your favorite James Brown track? Get back to us with answers to the questions just mentioned or anything else about this article.
Well, that's all folks for me now anyway.
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Dj Mistri and the Electric Soul Show © www.electricsoulshow.com
