The Declaration of Independence Read by Thespians: Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, Renee Zellweger & More

Some­where along the line today, take a break from the fes­tiv­i­ties and remind your­self what we’re actu­al­ly cel­e­brat­ing here in Amer­i­ca — the sign­ing of Amer­i­ca’s found­ing doc­u­ment 239 years ago. Draft­ed by Thomas Jef­fer­son, The Dec­la­ra­tion of Inde­pen­dence remains per­haps the best state­ment of our coun­try’s aspi­ra­tions. And after the Supreme Court’s recent Oberge­fell v. Hodges deci­sion, many would say that the doc­u­ment — pro­claim­ing that “all men are cre­at­ed equal” and have inalien­able rights, “Life, Lib­er­ty and the pur­suit of Hap­pi­ness” — feels more alive than it has for some time. But no mat­ter where you sit on the polit­i­cal spec­trum, it’s help­ful to return to The Dec­la­ra­tion and its core prin­ci­ples. You can read the open­ing lines below, and the full text here.

Above, we have some very rec­og­niz­able Hol­ly­wood celebs (includ­ing eight Oscar win­ners) read­ing The Dec­la­ra­tion. (Beneath it, we’ve includ­ed a grainier ver­sion that fea­tures a nice pref­ace by Mor­gan Free­man). For the sake of mak­ing this worth­while, pre­tend it isn’t the infa­mous Mel Gib­son read­ing the very first lines.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes nec­es­sary for one peo­ple to dis­solve the polit­i­cal bands which have con­nect­ed them with anoth­er, and to assume among the pow­ers of the earth, the sep­a­rate and equal sta­tion to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God enti­tle them, a decent respect to the opin­ions of mankind requires that they should declare the caus­es which impel them to the sep­a­ra­tion.

We hold these truths to be self-evi­dent, that all men are cre­at­ed equal, that they are endowed by their Cre­ator with cer­tain unalien­able Rights, that among these are Life, Lib­er­ty and the pur­suit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Gov­ern­ments are insti­tut­ed among Men, deriv­ing their just pow­ers from the con­sent of the gov­erned, –That when­ev­er any Form of Gov­ern­ment becomes destruc­tive of these ends, it is the Right of the Peo­ple to alter or to abol­ish it, and to insti­tute new Gov­ern­ment, lay­ing its foun­da­tion on such prin­ci­ples and orga­niz­ing its pow­ers in such form, as to them shall seem most like­ly to effect their Safe­ty and Hap­pi­ness. Pru­dence, indeed, will dic­tate that Gov­ern­ments long estab­lished should not be changed for light and tran­sient caus­es; and accord­ing­ly all expe­ri­ence hath shewn, that mankind are more dis­posed to suf­fer, while evils are suf­fer­able, than to right them­selves by abol­ish­ing the forms to which they are accus­tomed. But when a long train of abus­es and usurpa­tions, pur­su­ing invari­ably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despo­tism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Gov­ern­ment, and to pro­vide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient suf­fer­ance of these Colonies; and such is now the neces­si­ty which con­strains them to alter their for­mer Sys­tems of Gov­ern­ment. The his­to­ry of the present King of Great Britain is a his­to­ry of repeat­ed injuries and usurpa­tions, all hav­ing in direct object the estab­lish­ment of an absolute Tyran­ny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be sub­mit­ted to a can­did world.

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. Or fol­low our posts on Threads, Face­book, BlueSky or Mastodon.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Free Online His­to­ry Cours­es

Bertrand Russell’s Ten Com­mand­ments for Liv­ing in a Healthy Democ­ra­cy

Hear John­ny Cash Deliv­er Lincoln’s Get­tys­burg Address

John Wayne Recites the Pledge of Alle­giance