When someone as gorgeous as Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines says something you disagree with, the correct response is usually, “Yes dear. Anything you say.” But one off-the-cuff remark on the eve of a war that was looking to be unpopular everywhere but the U.S., combined with some hysterical right-wing grassroots hype, and the massively multiplatinum Dixie Chicks suddenly found themselves persona non grata with country music fans.
The remark about George W. Bush is shown here in context, as it happened, and it comes off as such a casual aside that it’s hard to believe it could cause such a fuss. Never a political band before, the Dixie Chicks became one almost by default, as Maines didn’t exactly feel like apologizing to a crowd who would make death threats over political disagreements.
This documentary isn’t designed to win back Bush supporters into the fold, but rather to introduce non-country-fan Bush haters to the actual music being played. It’s not as political a documentary as the poster might make you think, nor is it a sob story—the band relishes much of the controversy, except, of course, when threatened with assassination.