"Shut Up and Sing" is a documentary about the Dixie Chicks, specifically about the fallout from a comment their lead singer Natalie Maines made during a UK concert at the beginning of the 2003 Iraq War: "... we’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas" (their home state). This comment was received very poorly by conservative elements back in the U.S. And since the Dixie Chicks' base is Country music fans, who are mostly conservative, that off-hand joke changed their lives forever.

Here's the short version: they had horrible things said about them, they (particularly Maines) received death threats ... and they stuck together. Not only did they stick together, two years later they wrote a new album that addressed the controversy and their reactions to it called "Taking the Long Way." It was successful despite (and possibly to some extent because of) the controversy - and although they were no longer welcome in their home state or dozens of other Country Music bastions, they found themselves selling out stadiums around the world where they'd never really been before.

The movie covers a lot of topics, the most obvious being free speech: the tag line of the movie summarizes the view of conservative Americans, "freedom of speech is fine as long as you don't do it in public." This movie was a warning about that view, and it's deeply depressing to find ourselves in 2024 with it having got worse rather than better. But the movie also addresses resiliency, and the willingness to change. The Chicks lost a lot of radio stations, and interviews with the station programming managers show that playing Chicks' songs would have been financial suicide for them. And then there were the sponsors, who reacted in much the same way - except the Chicks might have kept the sponsors by issuing the appropriate apologies ... and they had the strength to say no. They went through a couple years of turmoil, but it made them stronger and (I may be projecting a bit here) happier. It hit their income a bit, but not nearly so much as you'd think, as they started selling much better outside traditional Country Music markets. "Taking the Long Way" also won three Grammys.

I don't like country music ... but because of this movie I really listened to "Taking the Long Way" around 2007. Three of the songs on that album have become mainstays in my playlists to this day: "The Long Way Around," "Lubbock or Leave It," and "Not Ready to Make Nice," all of which are about the trauma they went through. From Wikipedia, Maines said of "Not Ready to Make Nice": "We tried to write about the incident a few times, but you get nervous that you're being too preachy or too victimized or too nonchalant. Dan came in with an idea that was some kind of concession, more 'can't we all just get along?' and I said, nope, I can't say that, can't do it. And we talked about it, and he said, what about 'I'm not ready to make nice?'":

    Forgive, sounds good
    Forget, I'm not sure I could
    They say time heals everything
    But I'm still waiting

    I'm through with doubt
    There's nothing left for me to figure out
    I paid a price
    And I'll keep paying it

    I'm not ready to make nice
    I'm not ready to back down
    I'm still mad as hell and I don't have time
    To go round and round and round.
    It's too late to make it right
    I probably wouldn't if I could
    'cause I'm mad as hell, can't bring myself
    To do what it is you think I should ...

    I know you've said
    "Can't you just get over it?"
    It turned my whole world around
    And I kinda like it

    I made my bed and I sleep like a baby
    With no regrets and I don't mind saying
    It's a sad, sad story when a mother will teach her
    Daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger
    And how in the world can the words that I said
    Send somebody so over the edge
    That they'd write me a letter, sayin' that I better
    Shut up and sing or my live will be over

    

It's a powerful song, made more powerful by not referring directly to their own problems - it could be about anybody saying something that someone else doesn't like.

I love the movie, and I loved hearing this intelligent and strong-willed group of women talk and struggle through this horrible thing that happened to them. Still, I wonder if the movie would speak to people who didn't live through the incident (particularly non-Americans ... I was living in the U.S. when Maines said what she said). On the other hand, the movie does retain a lot of relevance in the ongoing fight for freedom of speech ...