Post by erik on Nov 27, 2006 9:58:54 GMT -5
I finally managed to see SHUT UP AND SING on Saturday, at a cineplex just east of where I live, and I have to say I was mighty impressed with it.
I don't think there's any need to say who or what it's specifically about--just those three irrepressible Bushwhackers named Natalie, Emily, and Martie. But it is also about the state of America in general over the last three and a half years, and how politics, the media, and misguided patriotism put the Chicks in the cross hairs of a war-crazed nation over a snide remark made by Natalie onstage in London just nine days before an irreversible decision was made to go to war.
Filmmakers Barbara Kopple (who made the classic 1976 documentary HARLAN COUNTY U.S.A.) and Cecilia Peck also detail the family lives of each of the Chicks, and the fact that they had babies during the last three tumultuous years. We also go into the studio with the Chicks and maverick producer Rick Rubin as they get down to the business of making Taking The Long Way with a whole host of fine rock musicians impressed with the trio's moxie. And, of course, we also see how the Chicks and their British manager Simon Renshaw handle The Incident.
When it gets to the explosive reaction to Natalie's comments, whether it's with outraged Southerners, radio stations that ban and support destruction of their records, right-wing media nut jobs that hurl vile epithets, or the callousness of Dubya himself, SHUT UP AND SING truly gets incendiary. Indeed, these reactionaries come off as looking even uglier here, if that's possible, than they did in either OUTFOXED or FAHRENHEIT 9/11.
At the theater where I was at, it was a little over half-full, but the audience was cheering loudly at everything Natalie said, especially her "what a dumbf**k!" comment. And when it was all over, as the Chicks took to the same London stage where the controversy had begun three years before, there was deafening applause. It was quite a revelatory moment, that maybe things had finally come full circle in this country.
Hopefully, S.U.A.S. comes out more in wide release so that more people will see it (it'll certainly do boffo business on DVD). It is one of the best films of 2006.
I don't think there's any need to say who or what it's specifically about--just those three irrepressible Bushwhackers named Natalie, Emily, and Martie. But it is also about the state of America in general over the last three and a half years, and how politics, the media, and misguided patriotism put the Chicks in the cross hairs of a war-crazed nation over a snide remark made by Natalie onstage in London just nine days before an irreversible decision was made to go to war.
Filmmakers Barbara Kopple (who made the classic 1976 documentary HARLAN COUNTY U.S.A.) and Cecilia Peck also detail the family lives of each of the Chicks, and the fact that they had babies during the last three tumultuous years. We also go into the studio with the Chicks and maverick producer Rick Rubin as they get down to the business of making Taking The Long Way with a whole host of fine rock musicians impressed with the trio's moxie. And, of course, we also see how the Chicks and their British manager Simon Renshaw handle The Incident.
When it gets to the explosive reaction to Natalie's comments, whether it's with outraged Southerners, radio stations that ban and support destruction of their records, right-wing media nut jobs that hurl vile epithets, or the callousness of Dubya himself, SHUT UP AND SING truly gets incendiary. Indeed, these reactionaries come off as looking even uglier here, if that's possible, than they did in either OUTFOXED or FAHRENHEIT 9/11.
At the theater where I was at, it was a little over half-full, but the audience was cheering loudly at everything Natalie said, especially her "what a dumbf**k!" comment. And when it was all over, as the Chicks took to the same London stage where the controversy had begun three years before, there was deafening applause. It was quite a revelatory moment, that maybe things had finally come full circle in this country.
Hopefully, S.U.A.S. comes out more in wide release so that more people will see it (it'll certainly do boffo business on DVD). It is one of the best films of 2006.
