Albinism in Culture: Film
Hollywood Exploits Albinism to Give Our Deepest Fears a Human Face
Hollywood's secret shame is its exploitation of the genetic condition of albinism.
Film portrayals of albinism are usually fiercely negative: they misrepresent the condition’s causes, perpetuate myths, persist in using the dehumanizing word “albino,” and synthesize albinism’s outward appearance into the cause of every abominable human tendency. Villains with albinism kill for sheer joy; they’re hideous, impervious to pain, and relentless; plots invariably hinge on their eradication.
By the time John Houston filmed Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick in 1956, albinism was well established in literature. That same year, The Mole People became the first mainstream film to feature persons with albinism: a subterranean race that subsists on mushrooms, shuns sunlight, and enslaves the eponymous, semi-human “mole people.”
Over the decades, the albinism motif has developed several conventions, including:
1. The Stalker/Rapist
2. Evil in Name
3. Distressing Strength, Gleeful Cruelty
4. Strange Causes and Effects
5. Isolating Compassion
The Stalker/Rapist
Villains with albinism are often pallid purveyors of doom stalking the beautiful, unsuspecting heroine to rape or abduct her. Examples include: You’re a Big Boy Now, Albino (released under various titles), and Foul Play.
These films provide an ominous close-up of the villains’ whiteness just as he seizes the heroine, who is either raped, murdered, or terrified—an event that turns the plot towards retribution.
The movie Albino is archetypal: Whispering Death is an African with albinism leading terrorist raids against white settlers. He rapes and scalps a plantation owner’s daughter. Her fiancée disobeys orders to hunt the killer down. The penultimate scene has Whispering Death boasting of his deed while kneeling on the man’s arms.
“She was very brave…At first she was silent, but then later she began to scream…You should have heard her: it was quite wonderful and very stimulating…She kept calling out your name…but you weren’t there to help her, were you?”
Whispering Death is later wounded, shot, and stabbed, his corpse kicked of a cliff.
Evil in Name
The way the word “albino” is delivered onscreen leaves little doubt of its being a term of derision.
In The Eiger Sanction, Clint Eastwood is told Mr. Dragon does not like to be kept waiting, and quips, “Oh, the impatient albino.” In Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation, a frustrated Jimmy Stewart sees his daughter dancing with a blonde boy and barks, "He looks like an albino!"
Distressing Strength, Gleeful Cruelty
Unusual strength, combined with a high capacity for inflicting and receiving pain is another convention common to film villains with albinism.
An example is Mr. Joshua, a druglord’s assassin played by Gary Busey in Lethal Weapon. In one scene, Busey unflinchingly lets his arm be burned with a lighter to demonstrate his loyalty. The finale features a protracted kung-fu showdown from which the defeated Busey lunges up and is cut down by two cops (played by Mel Gibson and Danny Glover) in a slow motion, synchronized shooting.
In Stick, the brutal assassin Moke pushes off a penthouse railing while shooting at Burt Reynolds. It’s a flawlessly executed stunt that frames albinism as an essential trait needed to provoke the nihilistic plunge, simultaneously fusing Moke’s soulless character with the plot’s need for retribution.
Disturbing Causes and Effects
Myths abound about albinism’s causes and characteristics.
An enduring myth is that persons with albinism have red eyes. Lack of pigment leaves irises blue or gray, with dark, vascular pupils whose translucency tinges red in direct light. Nonetheless, red-eye references appear in many films, including Hustle, and Stick.
Viewers are led to believe that the cause of albinism in Powder was the hero’s mother being struck by lightning while pregnant. In The Omega Man albinism is the first stage of sickness, one that also includes psychotic illusions, afflicting survivors of global germ warfare.
Isolating Compassion
Pure evil replaced with pure good is equally isolating, as witnessed in Powder, in which the messianic Jeremy literally has an electric personality, an immeasurable IQ, and can read minds. The film’s core question is whether he can survive fear and prejudice long enough to cultivate his gifts. At film’s end, he bows to a bolt of lightning, exploding, returning his body to the universe.
Take that as a no.
Resources:
Skinema, a website by dermatologist Vail Reese, explores conditions, including albinism, affecting the skin.
Luna Eterna, a website on albinism in culture created by Clair Acher, includes a section on film with stills and commentary.
Albinism in Film: 20 Famous Movies
The Mole People (1956)
You’re a Big Boy Now (1966)
The Omega Man (1971)
The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972)
Buster and Billy (1974)
The Eiger Sanction (1975)
Hustle (1976)
Foul Play (1978)
Stick (1985)
Vamp (1986)
Lethal Weapon (1987)
The Princess Bride (1987)
Powder (1995)
Disturbing Behavior (1998)
End of Days (1999)
Me, Myself and Irene (2000)
The Time Machine (2002)
The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
Cold Mountain (2003)
The Da Vinci Code (2006)
