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I'm disagreeing with the post above my one that stated AVTAK has one or two serious moments that interrupt its comedic flow. I've laid out ten significant moments in the plot of the film that aren't comedic - they drive the narrative forward, all are played without laughs, and virtually everyone is a death scene and some are downright sadistic. I'm not saying FYEO isn't a predominantly serious film - I'm just refuting that AVTAK is a predominantly light hearted or comedic film. DAF is mainly a comedic film in tone not AVTAK.
I believe that from FYEO onwards there was a conscious decision to elevate the intensity and darkness in the series - certainly from a script writers point of view. Like Brosnan's era - Glen's era was uneven in tone - but they were generally played as spy films that had generous sprinklings of humour. For example OP's silliest scenes are arbitrary throw away moments - that aren't built in to the narrative of the film. Tarzan yell and telling the tiger to sit seem like after thoughts. By contrast the clown chase and death at the beginning, Vijay's grisly death or countdown to the bomb going off or Orlov being gunned down and clawing along the tracks are serious narrative drives built in to the story.
Case in point, the mass destruction of Pepper's squad cars, Moore was never a part of that.
Why the 70s got silly?
Well, if any of us had sat in the audience for Goldfinger in 1964 and witnessed the moment the ejector seat was dispatched, we would have roared and clapped. It was outrageous.
That was never lost on Harry and Cubby. And in a way they saw the future, right there, right then.
With hindsight there are too many fans who talk about lost opportunities, and lost Fleming stories. But Eon were in the business of making money, and putting bums on seats. Give the audience what they want, and they wanted to laugh at the crazy antics of 007.
That's how it was back then, let's get over it.
Is that the film where he threatens to shoot Lazaars nuts off? Or where he slapped Andrea around her bedroom and threatened to break her arm?
I get what you are saying, I do. And he was lighter than others before and after. But often the humour was in spite of him, not because of him. The times he was most clearly involved full on were when he hangs from the fire truck in AVTAK and the 'sit' moment and Tarzan yell in OP.
Other jokes in the early years (the double decker bus stunt in LALD and the exploits of Sheriff Pepper for example) Moore plays it all quite straight.
Fine, go ahead.
it's been discussed on here in a thousand threads already.
I gave you my take on it but you chose to highlight my last sentence rather than comment on my answer to your question.
That makes me think that there really isn't any one answer to that. It's the way the series went in the 70s to satisfy the audience of the day. Had they kept remaking From Russia With Love then Bond would have been dead in the water by 1970.
They kept moving the goalposts as it were. It was the only way to keep the series fresh and the audience attentive.
Eon didn't make Bond movies for hardcore fans, or Fleming purists. they made them for every 14 year old kid who wanted to be entertained for two hours.
There, that's my answer.
I sort of agree but I still have a different viewpoint. In AVTAK there is the feeling that they were going for a comedic film, and the dark and gruesome moments, which are indeed quite sadistic, seem to come out of nowhere. You could probably argue AVTAK either way because the campy moments are so campy and the dark moments are very dark, which is why it has the most uneven tone in the series.