When did Bond films start being family oriented?
When Dr No came out it set new standards for sex and violence in the cinema.
It was not a family film. There were plenty of other films for families like Mary Poppins, but Dr No was escapist wish fulfillment for grownups.
A decade later when Moore took over, the films were something parents took their kids to, an old fashioned nostalgic romp. If you wanted cinematic violence, there were films like Deliverance or Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Arguably Dr No opened the door for this type of graphic disturbing film, but somewhere over the last decade James Bond style violence got left behind and was now seen as kid-friendly and harmless.
And if you wanted graphic sex in the cinema, there was anew generation of more explicit films for grownups, in "specialised" theatres and even for a while in trendy mainstream theatres.
Definitely Licence to Kill was a change in tone, back to images of violence only a grownup should see. It may still be the most disturbing film in the series in terms of atrocities to the human body.
Somebody above suggests Die Another Die as a return to Moore-era family friendly fare. Maybe the violence is more cartoonish, but Halle Berry fakes an orgasm, and Brosnan grunts and rolls his eyes then relaxes. This is the first naturalistic depiction of sex we've actually seen in 20 films. Coitus in Bond films had previously been represented as two adults lounging round in a strategically placed bedsheet drinking champagne and making nudge-nudge-wink-wink puns.
but sure it depends what you want your kids to see. If i had kids I'd want them to enjoy at least a decade of innocence before exposing them to nightmare inducing imagery.
Mr Whites suicide in SPECTRE shocked me!