Shut Up and Sing (2007, DVD)

I saw it and thought it was well done. If it weren't for all the controversy, I probably never would have watched it. It held my interest. It let us see a "behind the scenes" side we don't normally get to. I love when Maines turns toward the camera and says Bush is a "stupid f*ck". Made me laugh - it's funny, cuz it's true.

I'd normally give this feature a "good" rating, but I'm giving it an "excellent" to try to counteract some of the brainless, cowardly Bush traitors posting "poor" reviews for a movie they surely haven't even seen.

"Bush is right. Everyone deserves a seventh chance." ?-- Jon Stewart, on Dumbya asking us to give his latest Iraq strategy a chance

*WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS*

This is a great music documentary, which provides an excellent insight into the Dixie Chicks' lives, both personally and professionally, as well as the current state of affairs of the country music industry business and the United States more in general.

For those of you that may not be quite so familiar with the Dixie Chicks: they are a contemporary country / pop band, made up of three galls from Texas (Natalie Maines (lead singer and guitar), Emily Robison (harmony vocals, dobro, banjo, lap steel, acoustic guitar) and Martie Maguire (harmony vocals, fiddle, viola, mandolin) plus their accompanying band. After signing up with Sony in the mid / late '90s, they made it big time. All of their CDs released (Wide Open Spaces, Fly, Home, Top of the World) are platinum best sellers. To date, they are the best selling female band in history.

In 2003, they were at the top of their game -- they sang the National Anthem at the Super Bowl, their single "Travelling Soldier" was #1 at the charts. And then, all of a sudden, something very strange happened. Some background: early 2003, President Bush was getting ready for war against Iraq. At the time, most Americans were supportive of President Bush. Not all Americans though: there was a growing anti-war movement, especially in Europe, but also inside America and elsewhere around the planet. The Dixie Chicks were very much against the war - strangely so, when you consider their background as a traditional homegrown American country band - and had been discussing this for some time. Then, at a London venue (Sherpard's Bush), at the eve of the war, Natalie blurted out the following twelve words: "Just so you know, we are ashamed that President Bush is from the United States." This is commonly referred to as "The Incident".

That quote was picked up the UK based newspaper The Standard, and subsequently reported in the US media. In short succession, the Dixie Chicks were widely dissed by conservative America: they were traitors since they were disrespectful of the American President, at the eve of a war of all things, they were unpatriotic, and moreoever they did all of this from a foreign country instead of on US soil.

And then more happened: country music radio, mostly controlled by big corporations, widely boycotted the Dixie Chicks. Concerts of the Dixie Chicks were no longer fully sold out at every venue. In the end, they even received death threats.

In spite of all that, the Dixie Chicks remained defiant, and this movie is about how they dealt with the aftermath of The Incident: they wrote the songs for their new album (Taking the Long Way), but on a more personal level also had children and raised families. They lost many fans, but they also gained many: especially people who admire the Dixie Chicks for their outspokenness and courage.

It is a wonderful movie, and like I said, warmly recommended, both to music and non-music lovers. The Dixie Chicks are beautiful, wonderful, talented, admirable, and a force to reckoned with.

*Disclaimer: this review is based on my review of the movie which I saw on the world premiere, last October, in Toronto, Canada - at the eve of their Toronto concert.