I only asked about the cut Walrus Man decapitation scene because the severed arm gif reminded me of some pics I found online.
It appears the film’s violence was originally stronger, before being toned down to appeal to a family audience.
Actually, it was the reverse. Lucas intended the movie as a relatively light, family friendly film, but added the scenes of the burning homestead and Walrus Man’s death in order to secure a PG rating. On set of the movie, they filmed the severed arm shot, but it didn’t look right. They experimented with having Ben cut his head off, before deciding to just reshoot the severed arm.
The original severed arm? Would that be the weird, cup/bowl-like hand, instead of the hairy paw that’s in the final film? I think I saw footage of the original version somewhere, or maybe it was a b/w pic?