Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken
| Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Steve Miner |
| Produced by | Matt Williams |
| Written by | Matt Williams Oley Sassone |
| Based on |
A Girl and Five Brave Horses by Sonora Webster Carver |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Mason Daring |
| Cinematography | Daryn Okada |
| Edited by | Jon Poll |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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88 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $7.3 million |
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 and Cliff Robertson. It is based on events in her life as told in her memoir A Girl and Five Brave Horses.
Sonora Webster is 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.
Doc sees Sonora's talent with horses and give her a job as a stable hand, and she begins traveling with them. Doc's son Al wins a wild horse in a card game, and believes his father will give her a chance to train as a diving girl if she can tame it. She surprises Doc 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.
One day, Marie falls and dislocates her shoulder, leaving her unable to perform, and Sonora has to step in. Although she has never dived with Lightning, 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 are close and he promises to write her. He does write but Doc hides his letters. Doc and the new stable hand Clifford leave the farm in search of work, and that night Lightning falls ill. Sonora spends the night with Lighning and is awakened by Al, who has returned. It seems Lightning ate some moldy hay and has developed colic. Al and Sonora work together to heal Lightning. Doc returns with the news there is no more work to be had and announce that the show is over.
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