I had always thought of Allen as being a slightly arrogant, belligerent, yet ultimately an intelligent and talented bloke.
Indeed, some of his critiques of author Martin Gregory’s claims about the case have made for interesting reading. Thus, I advise viewing his ‘Rebuttal of Martyn Gregory’s Article by Keith Allen and the Unlawful Killing Production Team’ on their Facebook page.
In his film, he notes the following areas of suspicion surrounding Princess Diana’s death.
1) The legendary white Fiat Uno that clipped the car.
2) Diana was very much alive when rescue teams arrived.
3) Henri Paul, the driver’s appearance that night. Not drunk, blood tests faked.
4) There being no cameras working in the Alma tunnel that night.
5) The length of time it took Spencer to get to the hospital.
6) The names of the ambulance staff are still unknown.
7) While not a ‘note’ as such, Allen was inconclusive as to the motives of the crime, i.e. was it a ‘scare’ operation that simply went wrong? It is a balanced take, not often seen in the Diana field.
Thus, if we take an objective point of view, there certainly are some things to discuss either way (if you are interested in the Diana caper).
However, it is also one of the hardest films to find anywhere in the world.
The Keith Allen Film on Princess Diana's Death
Allen has leaked close to half an hour's worth of footage, and there are numerous articles, interviews and reviews providing a synopsis of the film's main points online.
However, there seems to be a very real delay in its release, and it is now fast approaching a year since its first public screening at Cannes. The film seems to have all but vanished.
Is Allen making additions or taking pieces out? It is hard to say, but the lack of a film makes it very hard to review.
While some audiences have lavished praise on the film (1), the vast majority of reviews for the documentary I have come across are pretty scathing.
While Al Fayed and Allen could well put this down to the media "cover up" surrounding the conspiracy, the establishment does not pervade everything all of the time.
Nor, in the case of this wash, do they need to. Al Fayed funded the film, and he was a key component in it as well. The project was always going to go off the deep end, from its very start.
Thus, I felt the that fairest review of the documentary out there was the one published by Variety magazine, written by Fionnuala Halligan on the May 13, 2011. In that review, Halligan wrote:
"Mohammed Al-Fayed lost his son in terrible, questionable circumstances that will never be resolved; a 10 million inquiry didn't come up with the answers, and neither will this bizarre documentary. There is no doubt that something was wrong with the short life and death of Diana; Allen is right in that people feel they haven't been told the whole truth. He raises some interesting points, but this simply isn't rigorous enough."
Nonetheless, rigor has never been a particularly apt word in describing the seething mass of people that are unaware of the problems with numerous aspects of the murder scenario cooked up by the conspiravangelists the documentary targets.
Targeting the Conspiracy Theorist Audience
While Allen's team did well avoiding the likes of Icke and Alex Jones, I do not know how Tony Curtis, Kitty Kelley, Kathleen Madigan, Tony Blair's sister in law, and even Howard Stern qualify as experts on the Diana case.
Mr Allen's, documentary will not be screened in England. This is not because of its banishment by the censors. It is because Allen would have had to make 87 cuts from lawyers opposed to it.
Rather than face the spectre of being sued, Allen and his crew have targeted this film offshore.
The gaping maw that is the conspiracy-hungry United States is, of course, an obvious target. Yet, it also looks like Allen has a surefire winner in Muslim countries.
In 1998, Jim Muir wrote about the Egyptian public's infatuation with her supposed conversion to Islam (2).
At least six books on Diana appeared in short order, with such giveaway titles as: "Did She Die a Muslim?", "Diana's Conversion to Islam" and "The Assassination of a Princess".
If anybody is interested in taking a far less time consuming and less fanciful depiction of a conspiracy in the case, I would suggest watching the 2003, Channel 5 documentary titled "Princess Diana, The Night She Died" (3).
I do not endorse the theory one way or another, and individuals like Martyn Gregory have gone over much of the material. However, in its favor, it generally avoids the Al Fayed hype, which has tarnished much of Allen's production.
Indeed, Mr Al Fayed - the 'Big Daddy' of the Diana world - has become a very central figure in many conspiracy theories about Princess Diana's death.
Next week, I will take a closer look at the man known as Al Fayed, and the issue of racism that lies at the core of many of his theories.
References & Image Credits:
(1) YouTube Review
(2) BBC
(3) YouTube
(4) The Guardian
(5) Live for Films
Seamus Coogan is a long-time conspiracy theory researcher. His focus is conspiracy 'theorists' that have undermined the hard work of genuine even-minded researchers and journalists for far too long. Seamus has 17 post(s) at Top Secret Writers
You might also like these articles:
 |
 |
 |
