A wonderful, perfect story for fans of music, free speech, and of course peace. This movie puts the Dixie Chicks right where they belong: on the top of my list of respect! 8) This movie invigorated me, and I highly recommend it to anyone else who...
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A wonderful, perfect story for fans of music, free speech, and of course peace. This movie puts the Dixie Chicks right where they belong: on the top of my list of respect! 8) This movie invigorated me, and I highly recommend it to anyone else who wants to be invigorated! :idea: Enough said, true believers! ;)

Great documentary...

I do enjoy my country music and I liked the occasional Dixie Chicks song. I wasn't a fan, however, until they exploited, rightly so, their newfound notoreity after Natalie made a flippant comment about the president. This documents the...
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I do enjoy my country music and I liked the occasional Dixie Chicks song. I wasn't a fan, however, until they exploited, rightly so, their newfound notoreity after Natalie made a flippant comment about the president. This documents the controversy and aftermath and how they handled their comeback. Regardless of political stance, everyone can learn from this. The hatred and threats that the Dixie Chicks had to contend with, all because they disagreed with the politics of the president, was disgusting. After 9/11, anything anti-war was dubbed as unpatriotic, as "evil", as with "them." Whoever spun this really did a disservice to this country because it's free speech that is our cornerstone. In any event, whether it's in vogue to argue with your government or not, it's always a right, always a perogative that we have. Noone should feel threatened for exercising it.

I've just seen the Dixie Chicks documentary, Shut Up and Sing at my local cinema. The Sydney Film Festival is currently touring a selection of movies in Cairns, which this doco was one. For a number of reasons (mainly that I am just too busy to...
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I've just seen the Dixie Chicks documentary, Shut Up and Sing at my local cinema. The Sydney Film Festival is currently touring a selection of movies in Cairns, which this doco was one. For a number of reasons (mainly that I am just too busy to think most of the time) I had not gotten around to seeing this movie, although I had heard of it and knew what it was about. I really wanted to see it at the cinema, so I was lucky to get the chance. Firstly, I need to point out that I am a huge Dixie Chicks fan; however, I am a "new" fan. I only got into the Dixie Chicks around 18 months ago, actually when I moved here (to Cairns). For the first time their music started to speak to me, and they are now easily my favorite band. So the point I am making is that I didn't really know anything about them before the 'incident' so I guess my perspective is a little off.
Having said that, I really loved the film. The Dixie Chicks are fascinating because they truly are 3 very normal women who happen to be incredibly talented, and who came along at just the right time, really re-creating in many ways the country music scene. And then everything came crashing down around them because of one comment that, without a doubt, was blown completely out of perspective.
What I really loved about this documentary was the honesty of everyone involved. These girls don't pretend to be anything that they are not - and their truthfulness, and their being themselves is truly endearing and only made me respect them all the more.
As a Dixie Chicks fan, and particularly a huge fan of their latest album, the film also meant a lot to me through the way they incorporated a huge number of their songs into the story. I feel a special connection to Taking the Long Way and Not Ready to Make Nice and to see origins of these (and other) songs meant a lot and, if anything, gave them more meaning to me.
The film also really touched me in that I see a lot of myself in Natalie Maines. I have a very big mouth which has been known to get me into trouble and which occasionally offends people because I say what I mean, which is not always what people want to hear. Over the years I have tried training myself in the opposite of this, so that I don't offend people and make life easier on myself and the people around me, but what this movie really showed me is that doing that is false - it is being yourself and standing up for who you are and what you believe that really counts.
So, I now plan to go out and buy this one - because I really think that there is a lesson in it for me, and simply for the sake of supporting the Dixie Chicks, which I want to do even more so now.