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Shut Up & Sing (2006)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:117
Fresh:105
Rotten:12
Average Rating:7.6/10
Consensus: Though ostensibly an intimate look at the Dixie Chicks after their 2003 anti-Bush remark, the film achieves broader relevance by exploring how media, politics, and celebrities intertwine.
Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins
Genre: Musical & Performing Arts
US Box Office: $1,072,805
Synopsis: This documentary captures the female country-&-western group the Dixie Chicks in performance around the U.S. and London between the years 2003 and 2006. While performing in 2003, singer Natalie... This documentary captures the female country-&-western group the Dixie Chicks in performance around the U.S. and London between the years 2003 and 2006. While performing in 2003, singer Natalie Maines ignited a maelstrom of controversy and red-state outrage when she declared--from a London stage on the eve of the Iraqi conflict--that she was ashamed that President George W. Bush was from her home state of Texas. When a rabidly right-wing group picked up on it, the band found themselves in the center of controversy regarding the nature of patriotism, freedom of speech, feminism, and the split between pro- and anti-war Americans. Filmmaker Barbara Kopple brings us the fly-on-the-wall view of the next three years, capturing Haines and sisters Emily Robison and Martie Maguire in dressing rooms, on stage, and in recording studios, bonding with each other, their families, producer Rick Rubin, and their supportive manager, Simon Renshaw. Through the crises, they keep their sense of humor and sisterhood, not backing down from their liberal stance, and turning the backlash into a triumph. They also make some great music, and the film includes plenty of riveting, intense footage of the band in performance onstage and in the studio. Among the faces appearing in archival footage are President Bush, Bill Maher, and right-wing country star Toby Keith. [More]
Starring: Natalie Maines, Emily Robison, Martie Maguire, Rick Rubin
Starring: Natalie Maines, Emily Robison, Martie Maguire, Rick Rubin, George W. Bush, Adrian Pasdar
Director: Barbara Kopple, Cecilia Peck
Director: Barbara Kopple, Cecilia Peck
Producer: David Cassidy, Claude Davies, Barbara Kopple, Cecilia Peck
Studio: Weinstein Company
Reviews for Shut Up & Sing
It isn't a disciplined doco, and the fragmentation of the throughline makes for occasional sags in the film, but the filmmakers mean well.
These two movies — one about family and one about freedom — never quite dovetail.
In watching the documentary Shut Up & Sing, one thought comes to mind. We all may be over the Dixie Chicks.
The most inspiring element of the film is the genuine fortitude and loyalty that Maines and her bandmates Emily Robinson and Martie Maguire exhibit outwardly and to one another.
[It]offer[s] little more than a portrait of a band struggling to save face and keep their financial position intact.
Something the movie fails to consider: that it's possible to have a low opinion of both the Iraq war and Mains' actions in London.
The drama suffers: The Dixie Chicks don't provide a rebellious force to rise against the inanity they faced.
Despite the promise to turn the audience into converts if they’ve never heard the music before, listening to the Dixie Chicks is, to me, not unlike metal spikes scraped across a sidewalk grating.
It was a throwaway scrap of a comment tossed to an audience baying with appreciation.
The film is about the way hazards force artists to rethink careers and, in some cases, do better work.
Academy Award-winning documentarian Barbara Kopple does an excellent job capturing the Chicks' thoughts, and uses judicious clips from political speeches to put Maines' off-the-cuff comment into context.
Exposing almost as much small-mindedness as Borat did, this provides food for thought as well as some darned good ditties.
The film gives us a fascinating look at how the Chicks and their bemused-yet-concerned English manager, Simon Renshaw, alternately tiptoed and blundered through the crisis.
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