"We hold these truths..."

in

In honor of the Fourth of  July, I thought I'd post two videos of the Declaration of Independence.  Both have some interesting things going on visually. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLpBQjTbv8o]

The first, produced by the NFL before one Super Bowl or another.   Let's face it, the Declaration once you get past that awesome beginning, is kinda a boring laundry list of complaints against the crown, this is kinda like the highlights (coincidence the NFL would produce a highlight show of one of the great historical documents).

I love the use of the fisheye lens for some of the closeups (like the Alan Page shot at 2:25) and the camera movement.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYyttEu_NLU]

Here's a Hollywood version, complete with, yes women reading (a limitation of the NFL's version), it's a little longer, but I do appreciate the intro that puts the declaration into its historical context, while also telling the story of how it has inspired our country to overcome its own limitations.  I think the staging is neat, and I like how the camera tracks through the readers at the beginning.  Beware, it's 14 minutes long, we were really pissed at the British back then.

Happy Fourth of July.