Taglines: The inspiring true-life adventure of a courageous young rebel who defied the odds… and won.
Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken movie storyline. Sonora Webster is an orphan living with her emotionally abusive aunt during the Great Depression. Sonora learns that because of the family’s financial difficulties, her treasured horse Lightning will be sold and she will be placed in an orphanage. Instead, Sonora slips out of the house during the night.
Sonora ends up at a county fair and sees a performance by Marie, a diving girl, as she jumps onto a horse as it runs up a steep platform just before it leaps off into a pool of water. Sonora then informs Doc Carver, Marie’s employer, that she is his new diving girl, and Doc tells her she is too young.
Later Doc sees how talented Sonora is with horses and decides to give her a job as a stable hand. She then begins traveling with them, bonding with his son Al and even Doc himself. Al wins a wild horse in a game of cards, and he says that if she can tame it, he believes his father will give her a chance to train as a diving girl. She surprises him one day by riding up on it and he promises she can train to be a diving girl if she can mount it while it’s moving. After multiple attempts, she finally succeeds and Doc keeps his promise, much to the chagrin of Marie. She and the wild horse, Lightning, develop a special bond which proves important later in the film.
One day, Marie falls and dislocates her shoulder, leaving her unable to perform. Thus, Sonora becomes the diving girl, even though the swimsuits don’t fit her. Although she has never actually dived with Lightning into the pool of water, Sonora is successful at her first jump. Marie is so jealous that she makes unreasonable demands of Doc to ensure her stardom status, and after he refuses them, she quits the show rather than share billing with Sonora.
Al and his father have always had a difficult relationship, which isn’t helped by his burgeoning romance with Sonora, and one day he leaves after having a particularly bad fight with him. He and Sonora have almost shared their first kiss, and he promises to write her. Again, he keeps his promise, but Doc, protective of Sonora, hides Al’s letters from her.
Doc and the new stable hand Clifford (whom she met earlier) leave the farm in search of work, and that night Lightning falls ill. Sonora spends the night worrying over him and is awakened by Al, who has returned and discovers that Lightning ate some moldy hay and has developed colic. Al and Sonora work together to heal Lightning and are walking him when Doc and Clifford return with the news there is no more work to be had and announcing that the show is over.
Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken is a 1991 drama film about Sonora Webster Carver, a rider of diving horses, starring Gabrielle Anwar as Carver alongside Michael Schoeffling, Cliff Robertson, Dylan Kussman, Kathleen York, Frank Renzulli, Nancy Moore Atchison, Lisa Norman and Lorianne Collins. It is based on events in her life as told in her memoir A Girl and Five Brave Horses.
Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken (1991)
Directed by: Steve Miner
Starring: Gabrielle Anwar, Michael Schoeffling, Cliff Robertson, Dylan Kussman, Kathleen York, Frank Renzulli, Nancy Moore Atchison, Lisa Norman, Lorianne Collins
Screenplay by: Matt Williams, Oley Sassone
Production Design by: Randy Ser
Cinematography by: Daryn Okada
Film Editing by: Jon Poll
Costume Design by: Malissa Daniel
Set Decoration by: Jean Alan
Art Direction by: Thomas Fichter
Music by: Mason Daring
Distributed by: Buena Vista Pictures
Release Date: May 24, 1991
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