Films' rising talk of violence

MOVIES are getting more violent, both physically and verbally, according to a major analysis of film dialogue.

- Stephen Beech

The study of 160,000 English-language movies produced from 1970 to 2020, such as Deadpool, found a rise in the level of killing.

Researchers also calculated the amount of dialogue from characters using variations of the words "murder" or "kill" in each of the films.

Study author Prof Brad Bushman, of Ohio State University, said that, while the total use of "murderous verbs" varied widely from year to year, there was a "clear increasing trend".

He added: "Characters in non-crime movies are also talking more about killing and murdering today than they did 50 years ago.