Shut Up & Sing: Movie Review, DVD Review (2006)

(Originally published 2007)

Directed by Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck, 93 minutes, rated R.

Free speech and its ramifications are at the heart of the new Dixie Chicks documentary “Shut Up & Sing,” which recognizes that for the celebrity, engaging in a public exchange of ideas and opinions isn't always without its costs.

The price can be dire.

Just ask Gwyneth Paltrow, who came under fire this week when she reportedly noted that the British are more intelligent and civilized than Americans, especially at, well, dinner parties. Or Madonna, whose poorest-selling CD, "American Life," features songs that criticize American culture. Or Tom Cruise, whose stinging public backlash was fueled when he famously took on Brooke Shields about the subject of antidepressants.

For the Dixie Chicks, an all-female group from Texas that includes bandmates Natalie Maines, Emily Robison and Martie Maguire, the backlash began in 2003. It was March, American troupes were preparing to invade Iraq, Bush's popularity was high, and outspoken lead singer Maines, in the heat of a sold-out London performance, unwittingly tossed a verbal grenade into the audience: "Just so you know, we're ashamed that the president of the United States is from Texas," she said.

Overseas, the crowd went wild. But here at home, the far right suddenly had an unlikely target in their sights--a hugely successful, beloved country group best known for their songs of broken hearts and infidelity than for creating a political scandal.

Directors Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck deftly chronicle the tumultuous fallout that ensued, with Chicks' manager Simon Renshaw initially believing that it would all blow over in a matter of days. It didn't.

Soon, country radio had banned the Chicks from their play lists, death threats started to roll in, fans began smashing their CDs in amusing public gatherings (such anger!) and ticket sales for their concerts started to tank. On camera, one southern fan remarked, "I like their songs, but I wish they'd just shut up and sing." Others chose to brandish the American flag and waive it in protest while they stood in line for Dixie Chicks concerts. Apparently, tickets to the concerts weren't refundable and few appeared willing to back their phony convictions if it meant losing money and missing out on a good show.

What's so compelling about "Shut Up & Sing" isn't just how it exposes some of the Chicks' fans as frauds, but how it captures the Chicks themselves in a difficult time of transition. Here is a tight group of friends who literally had to regroup and rethink who they were as performers and as people. If country radio wasn’t going to play them and their fans allegedly weren’t going to listen to them, then who was their audience? And how would all this affect not only the music they made, but their relationships with themselves and their families? The film’s considerable tension comes from the worry, anger and frustration that seizes them.

In the end, as we now know, the experience made the Dixie Chicks better, more accomplished artists and performers, with their music turning inward in an effort to comment on the controversy. For the first time, they began writing all of their own material, with the result of that effort being the defiant CD “Taking the Long Way,” which was released last May in a rather different political climate and, in a valentine from free speech itself, quickly sold more than 1 million copies in a matter of weeks.

Grade: A-

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