Have American war movies become more violent and gory over time?

Details

Researchers conducted a content analysis of movie violence, randomly selecting 12 top-grossing American war films from four decades spanning 1970 to 2002. They coded the films for implements of violence, the length of violence, gore, and violence directed at noncombatants.

They hypothesized that more recently released war movies would be more violent than earlier releases. They found that films released since 1990 contained more violence than the other films in the sample. The intensity of gore also increased in more recently released movies.