erm watch the film "powder" the hero is albino and far from evil, so no they arent always portrayed as evil, though im sure he could use his cool electrical attacks to great advantage [img]tongue.gif[/img]
anyhows you have to remember with hollywood that for someone to be evil they must have some distinguishing feature that makes it obvious to american audiences that they are evil (certain hollywood producers words not mine, and they DID specify american audiences before i get flamed) ie an englishman, straight away if they have an arrogant attitude and evil glint is known to be evil even before they done anything bad (the second you first see jason isaacs in "the patriot" you know hes an evil s.o.b) or they have to have a mark or size, see james bond badguys, you wont see any plain guys as the evil enemies, they all have something that sets them out as evil, whether it be a scar, manical laugh or whatever, being an albino is just another distinguishing feature.
If your a minority chances are hollywood will make a baddy out of you because good guys are generally built in the same mould (though were getting a good dose of anti-heroes lately [img]tongue.gif[/img] ) , i assume everyone remembers cowboys and indians, the first movies of this time were all about bloodthirsty indians, it took later hollywood to show indians as human, and even later films to actually show things from the indians point of view to see the "cowboys" as the ones who were evil, things do get in perspective but it takes time, and im sure down the line in some kinda sci-fi film an albino will be the hero, been plenty in star trek
as for the examples in that link, in the time machine, the book the bad guys are albinos because of their environment, nothing to do with albino actors or anything like that, same way blacks are black because of protection against the sun, its because of environment adapting. (though in the book there is no uber-villain they are sub-human almost cavemen types)
farelly brothers comedy - they take the piss out of everyone without fail, the albino guy is just another way of getting a laugh.
as for manga type things, they are obsessed with all things white in manga, so most of the heroes tend to take on characteristics associated with albinos, they have funny coloured eyes not just pink, weird hair or lack of and generally white faces, very rare to see japanese type faces, i asked a japanese girl once why this was in manga, and its because they really do love the whole white image also they like big eyes, esp the men, which is why the cartoons are built that way, definately not an albino case at all.
back to powder again its just another story in the same mould as all "i have something different, people pick on me" that we see in hollywood CONSTANTLY, whether it be fat, or short or whatever, anything different from the norm as hollywood sees it will be taken as a subject, getting over that if you watch the film the albino is the purest person in it, with a gentle nature and representing all thats good about humans, hes actually saying that hes better than everyone else even if he doesnt think so and leaves earth because as yet the human race isnt accepting enough towards him (fair point IMO) its not perpetuating freaks in society unless you cant understand the film, its saying people are different adn should be treated equal not shunned.
simpsons example - scraping the barrel or what [img]tongue.gif[/img] chalk/lime is what the dead used to be buried with ffs, i dont think insulting zombies should get anyone up in arms should it [img]tongue.gif[/img]
anyhows physically an albino is only an albino if pure white with pink eyes otherwise not a true albino so hardly any of the above characters fit that anyway, its yet again someone taking things out of proportion, the best villains are those with a physical deformity or obviously carrying on of the marks of villainhood in hollywood
- sardonic englishman
- strangely coloured skin
- scars
- evil eyes, strange colours
etc etc, far as i can see the only film out of the ones mentioned that really explored the subject of someone with albino like qualities was "powder" and that film was an intelligent look at the way situations like that are handled.
Next were gonna get people sticking up for those of us with squinting eyes saying were all depicted as evil in hollywood [img]tongue.gif[/img] can someone pls sacrifice political correctness to the god of films and get back to entertainment for entertainments sake, least the farelly brothers dont care who they offend, offend everyone equally [img]smile.gif[/img]