Savagery In Apocalypse Now

Since the dawn of “civilized cultures” going back to the ancient Greeks and Egyptians, or even earlier to the first years the human race realized how to cultivate and develop land, the outside population has been viewed as savage. A modern person today who traveled back in time to ancient Greece or Rome would be horrified, and might consider the behavior of the most technologically advanced societies of ancient times a great lot of savages. In modern times, as fascinated as many people are with ancient civilizations, we view the way of life in those times as filthy. Undoubtedly, if humanity continues to move forward, centuries from now even the most advanced western ways of life in our time may also be seen as filthy. Does what is considered savagery not change with civilization, or is savagery not dependent on technology? What does it matter that the “savages” of Apocalypse Now are more technologically advanced than Marlow's crew in Heart of Darkness, they are still viewed the same in the eyes of Westerners. The savagery as seen by Marlow in HOD is purely the culture of the people native to the Congo, an innumerable amount of people who until the arrival of those proceeding Marlow and his crew have seen very little of the civilized world. They were considered savage because they
Willard is not fighting a war against people who's most advanced weapon is a bow and arrow, there is no question that the VC are not primitive, they do not posses the firepower of the U.S. military, but they are a refined society in the eyes of the world. None the less, Kurtz's unapologetic barbarian ways of conquering his enemies brings out a savage form of war. Willard begins almost to sympathize with the horrific methods out of understanding, his comment “we cut them in half with a machine gun, then give 'em a band aid” during his crews assault on a small boat indicates his