Freedom of speech, and so much more, drives the Dixie Chicks' riveting, often startling documentary Shut Up & Sing.
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
A slight disconnect, separating the brave face from the vulnerable heart, the text from the sub-text, is a large part of the film's considerable charm.
Look, to be honest, I could watch 93 minutes of Natalie Maines doing housework. That she has fantastic vocal chops is a major bonus, and her disdain for Bush is merely icing atop a significantly layered cake.
Shut Up & Sing teeters on the edge of deifying Maines, Maguire and her sister, banjo and guitar player Emily Robison, for their perseverance. But the film also focuses on the shrewd strategies they adopt in trying to keep their career afloat.
...a vivid, first-hand look at the hatred and hysteria that politics can evoke.
This documentary about the Dixie Chicks offers a revealing case study of the relationship between politics, celebrity and the media in todays polarized social climate.
Directors Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck have fashioned a compelling and rousing film that will not only appeal to Chicks fans, but make fans of those who weren't before.
... a portrait of the group that is angry, indignant, musical and inspiring.
A rousing documentary that salutes freedom of speech and the resiliency and creativity of the Dixie Chicks.
It’s a great portrait of Maines, a rebel girl you’d really want to spend time with so long as she’s on your side.
A lively, roving, surprisingly intimate backstage documentary that follows the Chicks as they deal with the lingeringly bitter fallout from that incident.
The candid interviews and fly-on-the-wall documentation of private business meetings ... make this a fascinating film.
Going in with just a rudimentary knowledge of their music, by the time Natalie Maines utters one of the best closing lines of the year, I had never been so proud to be an American.
It's the rare thorough documentary on a musical act whose dilemmas are faced in the here and now, one that should win over fans of the Chicks on the fence and of music docus and perhaps create a little cultural stir as well.
Shut Up and Sing is a shout of defiance, a chronicle of the price we have to be willing to pay to stand up for what we believe in.
Sharp and engaging, Dixie Chicks is a funky, raw, and passionate documentary portrait of the superb musical group, infused with a novelistic sense of surprise and events spiraling out of control.
A bracingly candid documentary portrait of the artists in a career-defining transition, the film simultaneously offers a unique perspective of a nation at a similarly significant crossroads. It also happens to be a lot of fun.
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