Dehumanization is, as defined by the American Heritage College Dictionary, the deprivation of human qualities such as compassion. In the film Apocalypse Now, dehumanization is shown to the fullest extent in many such cases. Whether it was the killing of an innocent civilian, the bombing of a peaceful area, or the mere use of a racial slur, dehumanization was definitely a major factor in the film. In this essay, I hope to thoroughly describe the horror (no pun intended) and dehumanization that occurred in the Vietnam War with the American soldiers.
             The most common and horrible form of dehumanization that occurred during the Vietnam war was the killing of totally innocent civilians. In Apocalypse Now, this was only showed in one scene but it was one of the most powerful scenes in the movie. In the scene, the boat pulls up to a small fishing boat and asks them for their papers that say if they're authorized to be fishing. While one man is checking the boat, one of the women on the boat makes a sudden move and the soldiers kill everyone on the boat for no reason other then the woman making a sudden movement. The men didn't seem to even think about what they were doing. They acted on, what I believe to be, their fear of not knowing what the woman was going to do. The soldier who first started shooting simply said, "She jumped for you." You find out a little later that in actuality, the woman was going to get a small puppy out of a basket. I can understand that they aren't that comfortable with having to fear for their lives all the time; but after they kill five innocent people for no reason, they just pack up and leave like nothing happen. They don't even appear to be that upset about it. They check for helpful supplies and not another word is said about it.
             A very mild and not very harmful form of dehumanization was the very common and frequent use of racial slurs among the soldiers abou...