Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983) - Parents Guide Movie Rating

MPA: PG BBFC: U Maturity Rating 7+

MPAA Reason: Rated PG for sci-fi action violence.

BBFC Reason: Contains mild fantasy violence

Sex & Nudity

mild

Few scantily clad women are seen dancing. A breast of one of them can be seen for a split second, blink and miss Princess Leia is seen inadequately dressed for a while. You momentarily get a peek at her buttock and breasts from a few angles. No nudity whatsoever

Violence & Gore

mild

Luke throws a skull at a gate switch. Then a huge creature is impaled with the gate spikes. No blood. A large space battle has spacecrafts being destroyed on both sides of the war. A land battle has several aliens and people shot and killed (no blood). Two people are shot or grazed in the arm and hand in great detail. A lightsaber fight between two main characters ends with one's hand being dismembered: no blood. Uniformed combatants are attacked or killed by large machines' laser fires or are beaten and battered by Ewoks. While punishing somebody, a man is lifted up off his feet by a third party, pulled away from his victim as he grunts, and tossed over some railing into a deep shaft. Screaming as he is falling, he explodes nearer toward the bottom of the shaft. A man briefly fistfights with an enemy before flipping him over his back. The rancor is released from its cage (very grotesque looking) and eats a pig guard. No blood, but the guards body is shown being eaten onscreen. Intense. An Ewok gets killed in an explosion. Threatened, grazed or struck by a man wielding a lightsaber or facing unexpected perils, at the site of a botched execution, at least three or four guards and other combatants are shown falling into a sand pit that has a monster's mouth at its base or sliding into the mouth. Some are shown being eaten onscreen by the creature. Jabba the Hutt squirms and struggles as somebody uses a metal chain to strangle him to death. Uniformed combatants from opposites sides of the war struggle with and bump each other at times as they engage in a high-speed vehicle chase through a forest. (The vehicles are "speeder bikes", which are designed to be ridden in the same way that a horse or a bike is, but have guns mounted to them as military crafts.) Other times a combatant is firing upon the enemy ahead of him or to the side of him. One man's speeder bike is invaded by his enemy, and he is thrown off of it, his body brutally colliding with the stalk of a large tree. The front of another man's speeder bike is damaged by a lightsaber, as the bike passes the weapon's stationary user, and the bike destabilizes, crashing into a the stalk of a large tree, exploding and killing the man. The man had been firing at the wielder too as he approached him. A total of three crash-and-burns occur either because the operator's vehicle was damaged or he was distracted.

Profanity

none

No profanity

Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking

mild

Jabba the Hutt smokes something. Alcohol is implied to be in Jabba's palace. An Ewok can be seen smoking a pipe.

Frightening & Intense Scenes

mild

While this is the most lighthearted Star Wars film, it's also the most emotional too Luke and his friends are led to the pit of a giant desert monster to be fed alive. Luke is the first to walk the plank to drop from a small craft, but with his friends in position to help him, he twists and uses the plank as a springboard to jump back and begin the battle against Jabba the Hutt's gang. Emperor Palpatine's deformed visage looks very scary for some viewers, and he has a creepy voice. Darth Vader's death could be very saddening for some. Anakin's face (after taking off Darth's helmet) can scare some. Luke is ejected into Jabba's monster pit and is confronted by a huge, dinosaur-sized monster (that will definitely scare little kids). A "pig guard" of Jabba's is picked up and eaten (with crunching sounds). The monster then chases and nearly catches Luke, but Luke finally kills the beast by hitting a switch causing a gigantic metal gate to slam down on the monster. Darth Vader's battered body is helplessly pulled across the floor to a space shuttle. There, his helmet is removed. While this scene is touching, his head is very pale (chalk white) and scarred. May be very disturbing to some viewers. The scene where the Emperor, who has become extremely angry, works on killing Luke (squirming and screaming as he is electrocuted) and is then himself attacked and destroyed by Darth Vader is violent and intense. Jabba the Hutt's violent squirming and struggling as he dies is somewhat intense.