The Albino

Y’know . . . every time I hear about Silas, the albino monk assassin in The Da Vinci Code, I can’t help but thinking about  . . . this guy . . .

The_albino

That’s my mental image of Silas, but could he be the guy I’ll see in The Da Vinci Code on Monday?

Incontheivable!

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

45 thoughts on “The Albino”

  1. Mr. Akin:
    Be advised: THAT PICTURE SCARED THE HECK OUT OF ME!
    It looks as though I’ll be opening your page while staring at the keyboard and rapidly pushing the “down” key.
    Ugh.

  2. Wesley: Where am I?
    Albino (whispers): Your in the pit of Despair. Don’t even think [cough, cough, gas] don’t even think about trying to escape.
    Great choice, Jimmy. One of my all time favorite movies.
    –Ann Margaret Lewis
    (You fell victim to one of the classic blunders. The most famous is “Never get involved in a land war in Asia.” But only slightly less well known is this: “Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line.”–Vizzini)

  4. To bad you couldn’t also replace Langdon with someone more appealing…
    “I am Inigo Montoya. You keeled my father. Prepare to die.”

  6. I don’t know who this guy is or what movie he’s from but I think he looks like a drug-crazed Captain Kangaroo!

  7. The DaVinci Code is not the first movie to use an albino to kill somebody. In “Foul Play”, an albino is trying to kill the Pope. The Pope, oddly enough, looked eerily like Pope John Paul I, who was elected, later that same year.

  8. I read William Goldman’s book years before the movie came out, on the recommendation of a friend. She just handed it to me one day and said “you would like this, its really good”.
    It was only after I had read the book that I understood how much restraint it took for her to tell me nothing about it, so that I could have the pleasure of discovering it for myself, and I appreciated that SO much. I have read it several times since.
    It was not a best-seller, but was passed around with gleeful enthusiasm among those lucky enough to be in the loop.
    If you have not had the pleasure, do yourself a favor and read the book. Goldman is a great writer, in his idiom (he also wrote “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”).
    “True love is the greatest thing in the world. Except for a nice MLT… a mutton, lettuce and tomato sandwich when the mutton is nice and lean, and the tomato is ripe…. they’re so perky. I love that.”
    -Miracle Max

  9. I love it…
    Inigo: That Vizzini, he can fuss.
    Fezzik: Fuss, fuss… I think he like to scream at us.
    Inigo: Probably he means no harm.
    Fezzik: He’s really very short on charm.
    Inigo: You have a great gift for rhyme.
    Fezzik: Yes, yes, some of the time.
    Vizzini: Enough of that.
    Inigo: Fezzik, are there rocks ahead?
    Fezzik: If there are, we all be dead.
    Vizzini: No more rhymes now, I mean it.
    Fezzik: Anybody want a peanut?
    Vizzini: DYEEAAHHHHHH

  10. From James Taranto at the WSJ Best of the Web Today:
    Not only Christians and reviewers are unhappy about the film, reports the Associated Press:
    Albinos are bothered that one of their own has yet again been depicted as a villain. . . .
    Michael McGowan, an albino who heads the National Organization for Albinism and
    Hypopigmentation, said “The Da Vinci Code” will be the 68th movie since 1960 to
    feature an evil albino.
    “Silas is just the latest in a long string,” McGowan said. “The problem is there has been
    no balance. There are no realistic, sympathetic or heroic characters with albinism that
    you can find in movies or popular culture.”
    The endless demands for political correctness are so leaden and oppressive, we wish people could just lighten up.

  13. Freydaddy,
    To answer your question, the photo is from “The Princess Bride”, one of my all-time favorite films.

  14. Oh please…touch not the Princess bride…That would be sportsman like. INCONCEIVABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  15. Since we’re doing favorite Princess Bride riffs, here’s mine:
    Miracle Max: He probably owes you money huh? I’ll ask him.
    Inigo Montoya: He’s dead. He can’t talk.
    Miracle Max: Whoo-hoo-hoo, look who knows so much. It just so happens that your friend here is only MOSTLY dead. There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there’s usually only one thing you can do.
    Inigo Montoya: What’s that?
    Miracle Max: Go through his clothes and look for loose change.

  17. Buttercup: We’ll never survive.
    Westley: Nonsense. You’re only saying that because no one ever has.

  18. Westley: We are men of action, lies do not become us.
    If only Hanks and Howard had that attitude. :-/

  19. Opus Dei, of course, doesn’t even have monks or any religious (only a limited number of secular priests). It’s very emphasis and reason d’etre is to assist those living a secular life to achieve holiness.

  20. Westley: Where am I?
    The Albino: [raspy voice] The Pit of Despair! Don’t even think…
    [clears throat]
    The Albino: … don’t even think about trying to escape. The chains are far too thick. Don’t dream of being rescued, either; the only way in is secret. Only the Prince, the Count, and I know how to get in and out.
    Westley: So I’m here till I die?
    The Albino: Until they kill you, yeah.
    Westley: Then why bother curing me?
    The Albino: Well, the Prince and Count always insist on everyone being healthy before they’re broken.
    Westley: So it’s to be torture?
    The Albino: [nods enthusiastically]
    Westley: I can cope with torture.
    The Albino: [shakes head enthusiastically]
    Westley: Don’t believe me?
    The Albino: You survived the Fire Swamp, so you must be very brave, but no one withstands The Machine.

  22. Miracle Max: Have fun stormin’ da castle.
    Valerie: Think it’ll work?
    Miracle Max: It would take a miracle.

  23. You know that was the mental image I conjured too when I heard the villain was an albin 🙂
    I love movie the Princess Bride, and also read the book long ago — Miracle Max is my favorite — but all my favorite lines have already been quoted! (the MLT and “mostly dead” sequences).
    Jimmy – you’re going to see The DaVinci Code?

  25. You forgot the Very Impressive Clergyman:
    Mawwaige. Mawwaige is what bwings us togever today. Mawwaige – the bwessed awwangement, vat dweam wivvin a dweam…
    I’m giving away my age here, but I had no clue who Peter Cook was when I saw the movie. Didn’t know until years later.

  26. I think the reviewers have given DVC a nice papercut and rubbed some lemon juice in it…

  27. I hate to say it, but the putty-nosed monkey is cuter….
    Jimmy, I have to admit that I’m almost looking forward to the fact that you are going to see this trashy movie – if only for the fun I expect to have reading your review.. 😀

  28. I use this one daily with my children:
    “Good night, good work, I’ll most likely kill you in the morning…”

  30. Fezzik: We face each other as God intended. Sportsmanlike. No tricks, no weapons, skill against skill alone.
    Man in Black: You mean, you’ll put down your rock and I’ll put down my sword, and we’ll try and kill each other like civilized people?

  31. If folks have never gone through the trouble to research the Wesley/Buttercup reunion scene from Goldman’s original book, do yourselves a favor & check it out. WAY too funny. At that point in the book there’s an address to Del Rey for readers to request the reunion scene. What you get back from Goldman is a detail of . . . Naaaa! It’s so much better if you find out for yourself! Goldman updated it every few years so it used to be you had to keep writing for copies for more comedy but I think he stopped that about 10 years ago. I first wrote in the mid 80s & a couple of times since. And some very serious comedy it is, too! Some of the funniest stuff in the whole book – & it’s not even in the book!

  33. Wow, Gene, I never did send in for the reunion scene, but now I MUST!
    I wonder if it is online anywhere?

  36. For me, the true hero of the book is Silas. I am a Silas fan! I think if Catholics can embrace that idea, the whole thing becomes less of an exercise in anti-Catholic tripe and more like “Cath-sploitation”.
    Think about it. He looks so cool with his dark hood, red eyes, and glistening handgun. And he is only real hero in the whole book.
    Langdon is some incompetent snob who can’t even drive a stick shift. He constantly gets things wrong and has to be rescued by Sophie twice in the first half of the book. He is barely intelligent enough to solve the puzzle of mirror writing (c’mon, even Encyclopedia Brown could get that).
    Teabing is right out because he really is the evil Teacher and the stuff he says about the Church make him an clueless bigot (that applies to Langdon as well).
    This leaves the barely described Sophie. But her supposedly intelligent character gets inexplicably dumb as a hammer after the first quarter of the novel is over.
    Silas is really the only likable character in the whole book. Go Silas!
    After the Fantastic Four tanked on its opening, it the studio suddenly started pushing it as a “family” film. Maybe the ad execs at Sony will also push the DaVinci Load as Cath-sploitation?

  39. Has there ever been a movie with a positive depiction of a six-fingered man? Or are they always cowardly murderers? 😉

  42. Buttercup: You mock my pain.
    Westley: Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.

  43. Vizzini: Faster!
    Fezzik: I thought I was going faster.
    Vizzini: Did I make it clear that you’re JOB IS AT STAKE???!!!???!!!

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