The lighter tone was always there, but each Connery film particularly from GF onwards represented an escalation in tone. When Connery came back for DAF it’s like the creative team ignored OHMSS outright. While containing fantasy like the Angels of Death and the Virus Omega, Lazenby’s outing did go back to something more grounded like FRWL. Continuing that would be a regression for the Connery era. DAF spiritually carries on from YOLT. The volcano base is more fantastical than the oil rig, for example. But DAF’s overall vibe is more comic and ironic. Moreso than LALD, in my opinion, even with its voodoo magic.
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On Friday, I picked up a copy of the Cambridge Film Handbook on A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, and watched the movie that night.
In the book, there is an article about the film’s reception at the time, and how audiences and critics thought it an example of the increasing violence in films:
At the time of the release of A Clockwork Orange in December 1971, a wave of films with scenes of violence were splashing across U.S. screens. In a preview article for the film, Time magazine had pointed to Roman Polanski’s Macbeth , Dirty Harry , and the recent Bond film Diamonds Are Forever as part of a trend in which A Clockwork Orange was also participating. Although some arguments could be made that these films were fictional responses to the nightly news images of Vietnam, two other, very salient, causal factors for the increasingly violent material were the previous twenty-year history of U.S. film exhibition and the changing laws of obscenity and pornography.
Also, @Jim always reminds us of the nasty treatment of women in the film. There is lightness in DAF, but darkness as well. Shady Tree’s murder was cut because they thought it was one too many murders.
Complete article at:
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History is an important and often neglected factor when discussing (Bond) films. And it is highly interesting to see how EON made Bond films during the height of the Cold War and the Vietnam War.
All the more interesting to see the next film being made in times like these.
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I´d go with TSWLM, because Eon recognised with this one that neither the actor change or starting to copy themselves or other genres could hurt the brand anymore…Bond being now the biggest and boldest brand there is
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