American propaganda

I know what you mean, the constant ramming that America is an innocent and pure country is ridiculous...in reality, America is more like facism then you'd imagine...and America is certainly capable of murder...

A very good film, but I found the propaganda annoying....

A lot of good movies have plenty of propaganda and it doen't make them less enjoyable. Take for example "Battleship Potemkin" or "Mr Smith goes to Washington", both are great pictures with simplistic ideas of how the world works.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Strangely, when Robert Cummings says the line "Bombing cities and murder people only for you and your friends can eat on golden plates" (or sometihing like that) I thought inmediately on Bush & Cheney. Hmmm.

I think your comment is relatively unfair. I agree there is a certain degree of flag waving and anti-communist/Nazi propaganda mostly due to the time period. It was during WW2 remember. It's a bit too sensitive to say Mr. Hitchcock should have made a more dystopian vision of America and risked his status and possibly even prison so that viewers would find it an easier watch 60 years later.

But you also forget that it's by no means a simple 'God Bless America' moral. It deals heavily with the paranoia that war creates as well as critisizing many people within the American public who are controlled by speculation rather than their own feelings. Yes the old man, truck driver some of the circus people help him because of their strong 'typically American' beliefs in justice, truth etc. But you also forget that the uncle is sharp with his niece for being so quick to assume guilt. The circus people refer to most people being predjudiced and unkind because of their lifestyle and appearence. And don't forget that the authorities are whipped into a flurry to catch our innocent protagonist without a real investigatin by the political climate and the media pushing the idea there's spies everywhere.

If anything the subtext is about the dangers of predjudice, hysteria and assumption of guilt and blame that were rife in America during WW2. Considering the time it was made I think it's a relatively brave film.

I have to agree with TermlnatriX.
Saboteur is full of annoying propaganda and mostly because of this i think it's not one of his best movies.
On the other hand propaganda was more obvious back in the 40s, regardless from which country it came.
Even Donald Duck fought the Nazis.

Are you kidding me? Saboteur is somewhat an attack on sabre-rattling American nationalism. Remember in the film - the people the audience would assume to love America like the rich aristocrats and businessmen who have benefited from American ingenuity are the traitors! And in the end - Fry was the one who changed and promised to clear the protagonist! I think - as another poster has written - that the main character was meant to remain uncleared of the saboteur charges at the end of the film and sent to prison because there's a big message in this film about not judging a book by its cover or American flag lapel pin.

Watching it now it seems a bit desperate, like they were trying to convince themselves (about democracy, freedom, etc being better) more than anything. It seems obvious now, but at the time it wasn't at all clear that fascism would lose out. The Nazis had rolled through most of Europe by this point almost completely unimpeded.

I agree it's not one of his best films, but it was still fairly enjoyable apart from the heavy handed message.

There were no lies told in this movie. There were Nazis living in the US during WWII and sabotage was a very real threat. Additionally German U-boats were in American waters. It was important to inform the wartime-viewing audience just what our enemies were capable of. As the saying goes "Loose Lips Sink Ships," which is exactly what happened in this movie.

If you dislike American values so much, why don't you move to someplace like Syria? You're just an oxygen thief here.