In the January 21 Entertainment Weekly (the one with Will Ferrell and Nicole Kidman on the cover), there is a small artlice about how The National Organization of Albinism and Hypopigmentation (NOAH) doesn’t want “Silas, the self-flagellating killer albino” from The DaVinci Code to be in the movie.
According to Dr. Vail Reese, a dermatologist that works with NOAH,
Now, that stereotype does seem slightly familiar, but I can not think of any movies with evil or killer albinos. There must be a bunch of recent ones too, since the article also says that 2004 was the second year in 20 years in which there wasn’t a movie with an evil albino.
So, what movies are there with evil albino characters? And out of all the genetic conditions that are out there, why is albinism so often used as a characteristic of evil characters?
There was also the albino in Princess Bride, but he wasn’t particularly evil, just kinda comic relief/sidekick guy. He was wincing in sympathy as Westley was being tortured.
There was a weird guy in The Name of the Rose, who fits the complaint better. I can’t really recall if he was actually supposed to be an albino, or just weird looking.
That’s all I can think of, and two of those go back almost 20 years. Maybe I’m watching the wrong movies.
Foul Play, with Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase, had an albino assassin in it who was trying to kill the Pope. But that was back in 1978. And Powder , I suppose, although I don’t recall hearing that the lead character was evil.
If you wanted to really stretch things, you could note that the recent Time Machine had albino-ish morlocks as well. But that’s all I can think of. The only famous albinos I’m aware of are Johnny and Edgar Winter, (victims of a cruel joke on a Simpsons Halloween episode o so many years ago :rolleyes: ), so my stereotypical albino might be a hard-drinking blues rocker. Is that less objectionable?
Failing that, I think this sounds like it could be a throw-away joke in Arrested Development. Ron Howard’s narrator could say something about the Bluth company being sued by NOAH. Or “that’s the last time will call anyone ‘albino homo’ again.”
The Burt Reynolds film Stick, from 1985, featured an albino villain, Moke, played by normally pigmented Dar Robinson, the legendary stunt man who died in a motorcycle accident in 1986.
Have they ever made a film about Elric of Melnibone? (Of course, he’s morally ambiguous, not “evil” – in fact he’s plainly the least evil person in Melnibone.)
I think all the ones I know of have been mentioned already. A quick search of the IMDB revealed that the only movie titled [Albino](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074108/
?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnxteD0yMHxzZz0xfGxtPTIwMHx0dD1vbnxwbj0wfHE9YWxiaW5vfGh
0bWw9MXxubT1vbg__;fc=1;ft=40;fm=1) has a terrorist/rapist as the title character!
Here’s a different way of looking at the issue, though – how many movies are there with good albino characters? I can only think of Powder. However, that’s unlikely to be an inspiring film for people with albinism since the young hero (who also suffers from alopecia) is mocked, tormented, and treated like a freak by other teenagers.
He also dies at the end.
*Probably because it’s so visually obvious, and film is a visual medium.
I dunno. I never really thought of the Malfoy’s as being Albino, but instead thought it was a reference to “The Arian Master Race.” Since they are elitests and all. Of course, I am hardly an expert on HP.