True Grit

I did not want to see this movie.

I objected on principle. Actually, I objected on several principles. First and foremost, the absurdity of "remaking" John Wayne. Pfft. Surely that invokes some horrible supernatural cinematic wrath.

One can hope.

Oh, but people kept telling me those Coen boys made it okay. These people have KNOWN allegiance to the Duke, and so I was plagued with doubt until I could resist no longer.

And I went.

And thank goodness for that.

It was a GLORIOUS movie. The story, by design, was different from the original, but they preserved the sacred mental strength and sass and determination of little Mattie, and Jeff Bridges was beyond brilliant. It had the added darkness that only the Coen brothers can do, but it also had that one simple thing that all great westerns have, and it was with that one thing that they won my heart.

I long for this one thing in all movies that aren't westerns, and I'm usually disappointed. It's easy to get the feeling wrong, and most do. Some don't.

What was, and is, great about westerns is that they show you a world where the only things between you and justice are time and geography.

Wait. Climb a hill. Cross a river. But you will find it.

And in this version, they perfectly delivered the feeling that there were no other forces between Mattie and Tom Chaney.

Justice was personal, and final. It had its own gravity. It was black and white and red all over. And I loved it.

So I made a card...There's a scene near the beginning where Mattie walks past a bowl of apples. In movie time, it was a long moment, and I wondered why. It wasn't an accident and it was very nicely done.

So I used today's Try a New Technique Challenge to make my little scene. The challenge called for heat embossing on dry embossing. I took some Poppy Parade and embossed with my Vintage Wallpaper folder. Then I rubbed Versamark on the raised parts, added clear embossing powder and heat embossed that. Hard to see the shine here, I know.

I stamped the apples from Studio Sketches in Basic Black on Poppy Parade and cut them out. I adhered them to the image I had stamped in black on Crumb Cake and then covered the whole image with Crystal Effects. I hung the little crown of justice :) from hemp twine. I used a 1 3/8" punch and my Circles #2 die for the apples and just a strip of Newsprint DSP at the bottom for the black and white. :)

Oh, and Poppy Parade is now officially my new favorite color and I'll be ordering metric tons. It's definitely the new red.

So how do you like them apples?