Walk The Line, in trying to bring the life of a complex giant musical talent to the screen, will inevitably be compared to last year’s musical biopic, “Ray.” This story of how a poor Arkansas farm boy overcomes the tragic loss of his older brother, an alcoholic father who blames him for it and his own booze and pill addiction to become Johnny Cash, “the man in black,” doesn’t quite measure up to the Ray Charles story. Yet it’s an entertaining film filled with music that has as its core one of the great show business love stories, that of Cash and June Carter.

Director James Mangold, whose credits are mostly small, independent films (“Cop Land,” “Girl, Interrupted”), doesn’t try anything fancy, using the classic flashback technique after opening on the scene of the famous Folsom Prison concert that transformed Cash from a successful but unremarkable singer to a crossover sensation with his own unique style. We are quickly transported to 1944 Dyess, Arkansas, where “JR”, as he was called, and his family eke out an existence as sharecroppers and the need for extra money leads to his brother’s fatal accident while handling dangerous mechanical equipment.

Fade to 1952, when Cash is drafted but gets sent to Germany instead of the war in Korea. It’s there where Cash, a country music addict from childhood, buys a guitar and hears June Carter on an Armed Forces Radio broadcast of the Grand Ole Opry.

Back home, Cash gets married and has kids without the means to support them, all the while trying to pursue a musical career his wife thinks is a pipedream. Auditioning with his band before the legendary Memphis record producer Sam Phillips, Cash is about to be dismissed as one of a hundred similar country music singers until he offers up some songs he wrote himself, songs with a darker edge and crossover appeal.

Suddenly, he’s thrown on tour with 50s rock legends Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Waylon Jennings (played by son Shooter) and, yes, Elvis, who generously offers his stash of pills to the group. It’s on tour where he finally meets the older June Carter and begins a years long, largely platonic but increasingly intimate relationship with the also married singer before Carter gives in to Cash’s determined pursuit.

On the face of it, Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon are miscast as Cash and Carter. They are too pretty and their credits don’t indicate the depth required for these complex personalities, but their true acting abilities carry the day.

Phoenix, who insisted on doing his own singing, even successfully brings off some of Cash’s most famous numbers, including “Ring of Fire” and the Cash-Carter duet, “Jackson.” (I would have liked to see Phoenix’s rendition of “A Boy Named Sue,” not included in the film). Phoenix seems to mold himself into the character as Cash matures in the film, after falling to the depths of addiction and doing his best to wreck his career.

Witherspoon, who has excelled at light comedy, reaches back to her childhood to find that combination of southern charm and determination that characterized June Carter. (Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Witherspoon was raised primarily in Nashville, was a child model and scored at the age of 14 as the child of battling parents in the little-seen “The Man In The Moon.)”

Although Cash desperately needed the tough love Carter gave him to overcome his addiction, the relationship was not one-sided. A child of the singing Carter Family, known as the “first family of country music” for decades, Carter had no confidence in her own singing ability until Cash came along.

“Walk The Line” is also strengthened by some fine supporting performances from Robert Patrick as Cash’s father, who is allowed to become more than a stick figure in later scenes, Vivian Liberto as Cash’s long-suffering first wife, Sandra Ellis Lafferty as June’s mother, Maybelle and Waylon Malloy Payne, who gives a dead-on portrayal of bad-boy Jerry Lee Lewis.

The script by Mangold and Gil Dennis is serviceable and may suffer from Cash’s required approval and involvement in the production until his recent death. Remarkably, the same situation existed with The Ray Charles film with Charles passing away just before the film was completed.

The inability to edit big budget films to under two hours is an increasing problem. 20 minutes could easily have been lopped off the 136 minute running time. As with “Ray,” however, the story is so strong, the weaknesses are overcome.

Driving through Texas on one of those grinding one-night-stand tours, Lewis, who at one point had studied to become a preacher, says, “You know where we’re headed don’t you?” When the response is the next town, Lewis replies, “We’re all going to hell for the songs we play.”

Many in the tour group died young, or like Lewis, wound up spending their later years sick and broke. The movie ends in 1968 at Folsom prison, but Cash went on to greatness for another 30 years and, as corny as it sounds, could thank the love of a good woman.

Bill Murchison notes that the High Court of Texas ordered a change in the funding mechanism without ordering more funding.  Still, he has an idea of how to help schools actually fulfill their job of educating without spending piles more money.  He spells it c-o-m-p-e-t-i-t-i-o-n.

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According to the Dallas Federal Reserve October was a pretty good month for the Texas economy and at least a decent month for the Dallas and Fort Worth area economies. As a while the state added a total of 12,400 jobs in the teeth of lingering hurricane related problems. That represents a 2% annual growth rate.

Houston was again the star as it added 2200 October jobs with a year to date gain of 35,400. This compares to a Dallas expansion of 1400 jobs and a year to date total of 17,000 jobs. However, if you add Fort Worth-Arlington’s 1800 monthly gain and 15,000 year-to-date gains the North Texas Economy added 3200 jobs last month and boasts 32,000 year-to-date. In overall population Houston and North Texas are comparable. Austin’s growth slowed a bit but still added 1400 jobs from its much lower population base and unlike Dallas saw an increase in tech related hiring.

Overall even with some hurricane related slowing the Texas economy’s growth continues at a robust rate. However, the Dallas area is now the state’s laggard economy with Austin having pulled ahead of Dallas in overall economic growth.

The Pew Center’s “Internet and American Life Project” always produces interesting numbers and insights. Here is a recap for the past month:

• Two thirds of all adult Americans (16 years and older) go online and one third DO NOT. That means 137 million American use the Internet. There is a direct correlation between education level and Internet access a factor that also translates into less access by minorities (57% of blacks vs. 81% of whites).
• 80% of Americans between 30 and 49 go online; only 4% fewer than the 18 – 29 group.
• 53% of all Americans who have Internet access have broadband.
• On an average day in September of this year 60 million US adults used a search engine. This represents an increase from 30% a year ago to 45% today. Only 52% used email on an average day.
• 32 million US adults have used on-line classified ads (please note you may do so for free with DallasBlog) and 35 million have participated in an online auction.
• 50% of adult Americans with Internet access used the medium to obtain information on Katrina with about a quarter of these getting most of their information from Blogs not the mainstream press.
• 13 million Americans contributed to Hurricane relief charities on line.

Expect to pay more for using the Dallas North Tollway in 2007. The members of the Dallas County Commissioners Court voiced informal approval at their Tuesday session for an increase from the current 10 cents per mile to 11 cents per mile. That figure may then rise again, to 12 cents per mile in 2010. Allan Rutter, executive director of the North Texas Tollway Authority, presented the court with a series of alternatives, all of which involve fare increases.

The last Tollway fare increase came in 1999. The extra funds are required in order to pay for various NTTA projects. According to Rutter the cost of using the Tollway is at the low end, as toll roads go.

Under the alternative that found the most favor with the court, the Southwest Parkway would come online at a proposed rate of 17 cents per mile. The Eastern Extension would cost 13 cents per mile. Future adjustments to the fares would then be made based on the “actual performance of the road,” according to Mr. Rutter.

In response to a question from Commissioner John Price, Mr. Rutter assured the court that County government would not subsidize any amenities built as part of the expanded Tollway. The Tollway currently receives 25% of its income in the form of subsidies, but these only apply to the basic service. Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield recommended that the NTTA make extra efforts to market toll tags to infrequent Tollway customers.

Since his announced retirement there has been widespread speculation as to why District Attorney Bill Hill called it quits.  The answer it appears may be simply boredom.  Two months ago the DA created a Web site for his office and, as noted here some weeks ago, established a section called "interesting cases."  The purposes was apparently to let citizens know when serious prosecuting was about to happen.  To date only one case was posted with a trial date of October 11th.  If the DA could find only one trial in two months that he deemed "interesting" it stands to reason that the job had just gotten too boring.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas has released it Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey for November. The survey of more than 80 manufacturers of various sizes and across industries found the outlook at 58 on a scale of 100. That is the highest since last December when the index stood at 65 and well up from the index nadir of 26 hit this past July. The Manufacturing Employment Index stood at 42 for November up from a low of 16.4 in July and the highest point in over a year. The index is calculated on the outlook for six months in the future.

Survey responses are used to calculate an index for each question. Each index is calculated by subtracting the percentage reporting (or predicting) a decrease from the percentage reporting an increase. When all firms’ report that activity has (or will) increased, an index will register 100. An index will register –100 when all firms report a decrease. An index will be zero when the number of firms reporting an increase or decrease is equal. This means an Index of 65 indicates a very strong outlook. 

Texas produced $98 billion worth of manufactured goods in 2003, or nearly 7 percent of the US output. Texas is first as an exporter of manufactured products.  The state not surprisingly turns out a huge share of petroleum and coal products. Texas also has 10 percent of the nation’s output in computer and electronics products and products, such as brick, glass and cement.

Dat Nguyen

Norm offers a good-bye tribute to a great Cowboy of gosh-awful era:  Dat Nguyen.  Too bad this hardworking guy has no ring to show for his effort.

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