Toronto

Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing

 (Documentary)

By PHIL GALLO

Dixie Chicks deal with the fallout of singer Natalie Maines' (left) anti-Bush statement in Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck's docu.

A Weinstein Co. release (U.S.) of a Weinstein Co. presentation of a Cabin Creek production. Produced by David Cassidy, Barbara Kopple, Cecilia Peck. Co-producer, Claude Davies. Directed by Barbara Kopple, Cecilia Peck.
 

With: Natalie Maines, Emily Robison, Martie McGuire, Simon Renshaw.
 

Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck have crafted an insightful and heartfelt look at the experiences of the Dixie Chicks over the last three years, chronicling the often bizarre consequences of singer Natalie Maines' anti-Bush wisecrack on a London stage. Maines' statement is captured in "Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing," as are the meetings where they plot how to circumvent the core country audience and, eventually, how to reroute a tour and cancel shows due to poor ticket sales. 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.

Filmmakers have created a nonchronological story to emphasize the Greek tragedy behind the Dixie Chicks' spiral into country music's public enemy No. 1. The Chicks vs. President Bush, the Chicks vs. Toby Keith, the Chicks vs. country radio -- every antagonistic angle is covered, and yet Maines, Emily Robison and Martie McGuire persevere, with their chroniclers providing a sympathetic tone to their every struggle.

"Shut Up" identifies the Dixie Chicks as sincere and honest, a self-contained matriarchal community that doesn't back down and, per the doc's p.o.v., deserves support for its integrity alone.

Docu opens in the studio in 2005, a scene that will be revisited several times. It becomes a beacon of change for the Chicks as they work in the uncomfortable environs of Los Angeles and with unfamiliar collaborators and musicians from the rock world.

The sessions challenge the women's concepts of songwriting and making music to suit yourself rather than country radio; there's also the question of what exactly constitutes a Dixie Chicks song. The result will be "Taking the Long Way," though the film doesn't document how it subsequently debuted at No. 1 and sold 1 million copies in three weeks.

"Long Way," they discuss with regularity, was designed to expose them to a new, noncountry audience. Primarily, McGuire notes, "The record is our therapy."

The Chicks had been extraordinarily popular, as a flashback reminds viewers: They sang the national anthem at the Super Bowl in 2003 and announced a tour sponsorship deal with Lipton Tea. Shortly thereafter they head to Europe, starting in London.

Maines is seen backstage at Shepherds Bush Empire asking for an update on the just-launched war in Iraq; within hours -- with cameras rolling -- she offhandedly says, "We're ashamed the president is from Texas," the home state of both Bush and the Chicks. She makes the statement, turns to a bandmate and laughs.

The press makes hay of her comment, and the Chicks and management go into damage-control mode, which will last nearly three years. There's the famous nude Entertainment Weekly magazine cover shoot, the Diane Sawyer interview and the protests at concerts.

The Chicks are shown, at every turn, getting on with their lives mostly by focusing on their children and husbands. Maines is the spunkiest, the one whose initial instinct is to fight back. Even when her call is the wrong one -- she objects to starting the 2006 tour with smaller showcases before hitting arenas -- her defense is admirable and much more than a selfish whim.

Fly-on-the-wall feeling permeates the entire film, which is seamlessly edited while leapfrogging back and forth in time. Sound recording and editing are consistently topnotch regardless of the setting.

"Shut Up and Sing" was booked for a one-week Oscar-qualifying Los Angeles run prior to its Gala screening in Toronto.

Camera (color, digital), Christine Burrill, Joan Churchill, Gary Griffin, Luis Lopez, Seth Gordon; editors, Bob Eisenhardt, Jean Tsien, Emma Morris, Aaron Kuhn; music, the Dixie Chicks; sound, Giovanni DiSimone, Alan Barker. Reviewed at Laemmle Grand 4-Plex, Los Angeles, Sept. 1, 2006. (In Toronto Film Festival -- Gala.) Running time: 93 MIN.