Apocalypse Now has many themes that relate to what we have been talking about in class, but I think one of the most prevalent is how war changes a soldier. Particularly in this film, the soldiers become animalistic and unsympathetic, and they look at all of the civilians as the enemy, no matter their age, gender, or level of innocence. The civilians aren't safe in their cities, and the American soldiers make it a point that they know that. The soldiers have no regard for the lives of the civilians in the lands they are occupying, and they almost make it seem like they are intruders in their own land, and that they are getting in the soldiers' way.
For example, when the American army launches an attack on a civilian town just so that Kilgore can go watch Lance surf, they are completely disregarding the families below them, and they don't care at all. At the same time, they play music that pumps them up and makes them angry and hyper, and in a way, they turn killing civilians into a game they are playing with themselves.
These actions are not characteristics of civilized men, they are characteristics of hunters, which makes me feel like the soldiers take on animalistic qualities as the war goes on.
Your description of the solider's being animalistic brought a famous Vietnam war image to my mind. There is a picture from the war of a small naked girl walking, crying among explosions and napalm. If that is not animalistic and unsympathetic I do know not, what is. We must always remember that when we wage war, if we must, it is the soldiers we are fighting not the people. It is crazy that war can go from the killing of innocents in the mind of the soldiers, to a sports game that one has to hype themselves up for. War is terrible, and scary, but that goes too far. I have included a link to the picture I spoke of. Be aware, it is very graphic.
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