Reply #15: I think Star Wars, particularly ep. 4,5,6 are pretty gruesome. They are precicesly that: war movies.

[daedalus_dude]

The new trilogy has brushed that over a little bit. Replacing humans by robots and the like. Redefining
human storm troopers as mindless clones.

But: Just because it involves teddy bears and people with masks killing each other, the theme still is war. I don't think the original trilogy was meant for children (although I think I was like seven or eight when I saw them).

edit: as for the "honorable jedi". why doesn't luke skywalker return to destroy the sarlacc after so many people were tossed in there? sure, he was engaged in mortal combat with those people at the time. but he could have had the decency to drop a large bomb inside that thing afterwards to give the whole business a clean ending.