Al Purdy, the man of modern Canadian poetry, strings together beautiful phrases from rough, brazen words in this recount of a bar fight. In At The Quinte Hotel, a man sits at a bar pontificating the “beautiful yellow flowers” of beer when a fight breaks out. He watches innocently with the other customers until beer is spilled. “You shouldn’t have wasted that good beer and them beautiful flowers.” Soon this “sensitive man” knocks the fighter to the floor and sits on him while telling him “violence will get you nowhere.” Both a brash drinker and a tender thinker—the contrast dances wonderfully.

A live-action short of the same name was released in 2003 starring Gord Downie. Technically, it’s done well, but the format is all wrong—the images give too much away and the power behind Purdy’s words are lost. Watch one, then the other—you’ll see what I mean.

On the topic of visuals, lets not forget the superb animation done here by Bruce Alcock. I love his choice of a collage-style animation that combines painting, stop-motion, typography, etc. Every object adds greater depth to Al’s words like the “sensitive” gun and axe we see with the timing synced to his rhythm of speech. At The Quinte Hotel is truly one of the best marriages of image and word. Often conflicting, but always harmonizing.

Try this on for a deeper message: the way one sees oneself and the way one is perceived by others are often two very different views. But a certain harmony comes from it. This is true not only in our main character but also in the value of the things we call beautiful. In his usual brazen style, Al makes this very clear near the end—”A poem will not really buy you beer, or flowers, or a goddam thing.” Al Purdy, never a rich man, was cynically commenting on the world of poetry—ever important, yet unnecessary—the harmony of his discordant universe.