Getting past the Disney aspect, as so many have done, you could argue that Stockholm Syndrome is the only reason that Beauty and the Beast works as a story. There are many movies similar to this, but explaining it in such a manner does kind of take some of the magic out of it and deny that there might be real feelings between the characters. One thing people don’t understand is that yes, under duress a human being will move towards those they feel is the safest bet and the most likely to help them sort out their chaotic and somewhat crazed feelings, but in the stories it’s ascribed to the genuine feeling is that there is something beneath the syndrome that was waiting to be discovered. If not then each one of these movies would be in effect a successful attempt at brainwashing the victim, which is even more depressing.
Here are a few movies that could be seen as being based on the story of Beauty and the Beast.
5. A Life Less Ordinary
Sometimes even heaven thinks that people should be together and yet they come up with the most messed-up ways to make it happen. When two angels try to manipulate a lowly janitor and a rich, entitled young woman to get together the hijinks get started early when the janitor confronts the head boss that had him fired and ends up kidnapping the rich girl, in a way. In truth she kind of eggs the whole thing on as they get into one shootout and then another throughout the movie until finally he admits that he loves her and they head off into the metaphorical sunset together, which then allows the two angels to return home. It’s a different kind of film, but it’s pretty entertaining.
4. Overboard
This kind of takes the whole idea of Stockholm Syndrome and flips it around a bit since Dean is looking to get back at Joanna for not paying him for a job he did on her yacht. When she turns up in Elk Cove with no memory of who she is or he is Dean decides to take a bit of revenge and makes up a few phony documents saying that she’s his wife. He gets her to clean, cook, and take care of his boys since their mother passed away years before and in the process he finds that he’s falling in love with her. When her memory returns Joanna finds that she’s in love with him as well and the two get back together in order to create a life together once again.
3. Labor Day
When Frank encounters Adele and Henry he’s little more than a convict on the run, but as they spend time together they share their stories and find that they have more in common than they initially thought. Adele and Henry bond with Frank but eventually his secret comes out and they have to leave. Both Henry and his mother are fully ready to head out with Frank but eventually the cops come and he ties them up to spare them from being charged as accomplices or for harboring a fugitive. Years later Henry is a successful business owner when Frank is released. He find Adele in the same home and reconnects with her, which pleases Henry as he no longer has to worry about his mother.
2. The Chase
When noted convict Jack Hammond takes Natalie Voss, the daughter of a very powerful man, hostage and goes on the run the two initially care nothing for each other as she is quite the rich and spoiled young woman while he is a man on the run that has little to lose. During their car ride however they somehow manage to bond and are given the chance to actually fall in love. Not too long after Jack decides that he can’t ruin Natalie’s life and gives himself up, only for Natalie to take a reporter hostage at gunpoint, ordering that Jack be freed as they hop on a helicopter and make their way into Mexico, where they apparently live happily ever after.
1. V for Vendetta
People shouldn’t be afraid of their government. Government should be afraid of its people. Such a sentiment might spark a great deal of pride in some folks but it would be seen as treason by others. In a dystopian and very depressing future the nation of England is under the rule of a tyrant that knows little of mercy and even less of the storm that’s brewing when the vigilante V begins to unfurl his plans to topple the ruling government and remind the people just why they should embrace the freedoms that are theirs by right. When he awakens Evey to his plans after saving her life she begins to see him as less of a terrorist and more of a revolutionary.
Stockholm Syndrome is a tricky thing to judge really.
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