Hm, not sure what to make of this, as I've been steadily digesting war movies now for almost a year (and not so steadily for most of my life) and haven't found myself on any berzerker rampages yet....  but correlation makes for good news, so here it is:

In a paper in the Dec. 5 on-line issue of PLoS ONE (published by the Public Library of Science), Columbia scientists show that a brain network responsible for suppressing behaviors like inappropriate or unwarranted aggression (including the right lateral orbitofrontal cortex, or right ltOFC, and the amygdala) became less active after study subjects watched several short clips from popular movies depicting acts of violence. These changes could render people less able to control their own aggressive behavior. Indeed the authors found that, even among their own subjects, less activation in this network was characteristic of people reporting an above average tendency to behave aggressively. This characteristic was measured through a personality test.

A secondary finding was that after repeated viewings of violence, an area of the brain associated with planning behaviors became more active. This lends further support to the idea that exposure to violence diminishes the brain�s ability to inhibit behavior-related processing.

None of these changes in brain activity occurred when subjects watched non-violent but equally engaging movies depicting scenes of horror or physical activity.

Just keep in mind that a good war movie doesn't necessarily have to be violent.  I think you can find plenty of examples on this site which prove that.  It also doesn't really say what constitutes "violence" per se.  So I don't know really where they draw the line.   Do what you will with it.  Plenty of discussion going on at /. too.

I do think that, especially when it comes to war movies, you have to approach them with a certain caution and preparation that "OK, this is going to be ugly, and it's not going to be pretty...."  Above all, try and use that couple of pounds of rubber gray stuff in your skull and think about what you're watching.

Link: This is your brain on violent media

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