Movie Review - Shut Up and Sing

When Natalie Maines told a London audience that she was "ashamed that the president of the United States was from Texas," the Dixie Chicks were thrown into a political whirlwind. With "Shut Up and Sing," directors Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck explore the fallout of this incident to make a statement on the issue of free speech in the Bush era.

"It was not a political statement, but a joke made to get cheers and applause," claims Maines, who is clearly delighted with the attention the controversy has brought upon her, even as it has threatened the career of her band. While not at all convincing as a political martyr, she is fascinating as a member of a musical trio who becomes a megalomaniac in the media spotlight.

Her attempts to turn the band into a vehicle for her personal rage fascinates because she is only an entertainer, not an artist. When the film turns to the more ordinary concerns of band mates Martie Maguire and Emily Robison, it becomes mundane and loses focus. Husbands, babies and home life cannot compete with the boycotts and death threats of life on the road.

The film suffers from its non-linear approach to the subject. It is difficult to keep the chronology straight with all the flitting back and forth in time. From its opening scene in 2005, with kids running around a recording studio during the sessions with rock producer Rick Rubin, to the infamous remark in London on the eve of the Iraq invasion, Kopple and Peck try to parallel the career of this country-western band with the politics of the Bush administration, and it doesn't work. Posters, trailers and the other marketing for Shut Up and Sing suggest directors Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck have made a big-issues film, specifically about freedom of speech.

But the moments that work best in Shut Up and Sing are the smaller ones. The filmmakers have caught candid, warm footage of the three Chicks — Maines, fiddler Martie Maguire and banjo player Emily Robison — at home. We see the gives-and-takes with their husbands, the birth of the kids, playing with those kids, getting into costume for Halloween. They read Us Weekly.
Footage from recording sessions for the band's latest album is also revealing, as the trio struggles to redefine itself and court a new audience. The candid, warmer moments in Shut Up and Sing are necessary counterparts to the outrage Maines' comment sparked.

A fairly specific death threat in Dallas seems even more ominous after we've seen Maines at play with her husband and kids. Maguire's insecurities flicker through the band's bravado throughout; they seem to be the film's heart. But the back and forth (between the home and the national stage) causes jarring continuity issues. The Dallas death threat, (clearly viewed as a climax by the filmmakers) is held until the film's end. That means recording sessions that occurred two years later, music that could have been informed by such tension, appear earlier in the film.

In essence, these are two major stories in this documentery. One about family and one about freedom. The problem with this is that the two stories never quite dovetail.

On the plus side, "Shut Up and Sing" is an inspiring story of three women who refused to lie down and be counted out. When boycotted by country radio, they rebuilt their career with a new band and a new audience. Their story is proof that integrity need not be compromised in order to stay in the game.

I'M GAY, BUT I STILL LOVE ME SOME CHICKS!