Invictus - William Ernest Henley (by Alan Bates)

Rare UBS TV-Commercial Series "Poems 1997", which has been broadcasted on CNN.

Original footage has been provided as VHS video by the advertising agency on behalf of UBS. Copyright by UBS.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Invictus
• William
• Ernest
• Henley
• Alan
• Bates
• Union
• Bank
• Switzerland
• Commercial

[servafidem]

@papashez

Dark moral vision? You're just reading far too much into this. Henley wrote it as a young man in hospital, having just had a leg amputated, after 12 years suffering from tuberculosis. For me, its about triumph despite adversity, about having personal resolve to keep going whatever the odds. Any motivational text can obviously "fall into the wrong hands" without it demeaning the text itself. Linking it to both Timothy McVeigh and the Third Reich in the same post is really going some!

[boss429manfred]

The best poem ever written, but i kind of like it more if Morgan Freeman speaks it

[Cedric27Qc]

What is the music playing ? Please help ;p

[XRockVstarI499]

everything's perfect about his reading, but it lacks impact. only morgan freeman could do that :D

[BarbinPeru]

Heartfelt but not overblown. I agree with Aubury, rweerakkody & others who give a thumbs-up to Bates's reading, which is absolutely spot on. That said, I wonder what the poem would be like if read by Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow?

[rweerakkody4565]

i am the master of my fate, i am the captain of my soul.....what compelling words and a compelling voice

[dbsk06]

wow i almost teared up

[Lokimera]

@jthweatt Apologies for quoting myself but as mentioned "Personal opinion but having watched Mandela i would associate his read to be closer to Bates' then to Freeman's." The poem is pure defiance and i believe it would not have been read in that manner but instead like a mantra for strength and will. Freeman's read of this poem is, again in my view, contradictory to every single speach i heard or text i read by Mandela. Opinions.

[jthweatt]

@Lokimera Keep context in mind. This recitation (which is excellent and which I keep on a playlist to watch often) is being done for a commercial. If you're talking about the film Invictus, it's not Morgan Freeman reciting the poem, it's Nelson Mandela, who is in the midst of serving a life sentence imposed by the apartheid regime at was - even for South Africa at the time - one of the least fun prisons in which to be incarcerated.

[markindurbs]

WOW!!! Really beautiful!!!!

[0rioni]

@CannibalCatfish

This is waaaay better than Freeman's.

This is called "reciting"; Freeman's is "whispering".