Stephen Prince

In 1930, in response to growing concerns over movie content, the major film studios agreed to adhere to the Hollywood Production Code, which regulated what types of violence could be shown on screen. By the 1960s, however, the Motion Picture Association of America relaxed the code's guidelines to give filmmakers more freedom. The looser restrictions, coupled with the invention of "squibs" (exploding capsules of fake blood), paved the way for bloodier death scenes in films such as A Fistful of Dollars and Bonnie and Clyde. In the 1970s innovations in special effects allowed filmmakers to portray increasingly graphic scenes of gore. By the 1990s, graphic violence had become such a regular feature of mainstream Hollywood films that filmmakers used it for stylistic or comedic effect in films like Pulp Fiction.
Stephen Prince is a professor of communication studies at...