Amazon.com video review:
Using Princess Diana's somber funeral as
the frame, this video ("The Official BBC Commemorative Video," the
packaging boasts) takes an admiring and elegant look at the world's
most photographed woman. Thrust into the public eye at age 19, the
aristocratic teen married into the royal family and became, as has
been much quoted, the People's Princess. These well-narrated video
segments (yes, BBC footage) are from official and public events: from
photographers' pursuits of the child-care worker to her engagement to
Prince Charles to her magnificent wedding (seen by more than 5 million
viewers) to Prince William's birth to her many royal tours, duties,
and speeches. The Diana who captured the public's fancy, who held
hands with AIDs patients, who embraced the homeless, who championed
land-mine victims, who departed from the stuffy royal ways, is
respectfully captured here. While the controversial Andrew Morton book
and her separation and subsequent divorce from Prince Charles are
covered, the producers elected to steer clear of the more sensational
and gossipy aspects of her fulfilled, though difficulty-plagued,
life. Whatever the Buckingham Palace spin is--that Charles is
experiencing renewed popularity, that his longtime mistress is
gradually being accepted, and that Diana, by those in Charles's camp,
was "crazy"--it cannot detract from the remarkable and impressive
legacy Diana unselfishly left for Britain and for her sons, one of
whom will one day be king. --N.F.Mendoza
