Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken
Encyclopedia
Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken is a 1991 film
about Sonora Webster Carver
, a rider of diving horse
s. It is based on events in her life as told in her memoir A Girl and Five Brave Horses
. It was filmed in the small town of Orangeburg, South Carolina
on the McCants' family farm.
She and her sister Arnette French heard the movie together, but she was dissatisfied with its romanticism of her life despite its appeal to the general public.
Sonora ends up at a county fair and sees Marie perform as a diving girl. A diving girl jumps onto a horse as it runs up a steep platform just before it leaps off into a pool of water. She then informs Doc Carver that she is his new diving girl. He informs her that she is too young, her body isn't developed enough, and tells her she should go back home. She stubbornly twists her arms and legs around a chair to show him she won't leave until he gives her the job. Instead, he just places her and the chair outside of his tent.
Ending up in the stable with the horses, Doc sees how talented Sonora is with them and decides to give her a job as a stablehand. 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 dove 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, 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 her, hides his letters from her. He and the new stablehand Clifford (who 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. They work together to heal him and are walking him when Doc and Clifford return, telling them that the show is over as there is no more work to be had.
Al asks Sonora why she never wrote him, and she tells him that she never received any letters. They are both confused over the missing letters, but put it behind them. It is then learned that he got a deal with the Steel Pier
in Atlantic City
to perform the show. This seems to patch up old differences, and just as everyone seems to be getting along, Doc passes away en route to there, apparently from a heart attack. Now Al takes over his father's role as a presenter. On his first day, he is extremely nervous, so Sonora finds Doc's famous fringed jacket to give him confidence. When she finds it, she also finds one of his old letters, confessing his love for her. When she finds him, she lets him know she feels the same.
Meanwhile, Clifford has acquired a rusted-out motorcycle from a friend in Atlantic City and plans to refurbish it to working status; Sonora is unimpressed and laughs at the notion.
Al and Sonora perform at Atlantic City in front of their their largest audience. Everyone is nervous and excited. As she is climbing the ladder, he proposes to her. She accepts and gets ready to do the jump. The horse, a jittery stallion who is not her usual partner Lightning, is anxious because of all the noise from the band and the crowd, and just before the jump a cymbal crashes loudly, which causes him to falter and trip. Sonora keeps her eyes open as they fall into the water. Both of them make it, but her vision is impaired, yet she hides this from Al and won't seek medical attention for the condition.
The next day when she wakes up, Sonora discovers she can't see. The doctor diagnoses detached retinas in both her eyes due to uncontrolled hemorrhaging behind them (a result of the high impact of the dive and her open eyes at the point of it) and tells her the condition is permanent and she will be blind for the rest of her life. In order to avoid a breach of contract lawsuit, Al must find another diving girl within a week, and calls Marie, who returns to be it.
Clifford has been working on his "new" motorcycle and gets it back in working condition. He demonstrates his new act for a small crowd including Al and Sonora -- it is an enormous metal ball in which he rides around inside on the motorcycle, doing loop after loop. The crowd is amazed and he is pleased with his new "death-defying" act.
Meanwhile, Sonora misses diving terribly, and feels utterly helpless and like a burden to Al. She tells him of her desires to dive again, and indicates her unique bond with Lightning as evidence that she could do it again as she knows him so well. She and Al work together to try to train her to mount him again, much the same way she and Doc once worked together earlier to train her to do so in motion. She is stubborn and refuses to give up, but Al forces her to accept the fact that it is impossible. She spends some quiet time with Lightning that night.
The next day, with the help of Clifford, Marie is locked in her dressing room, and Sonora climbs the platform. Though Al is scared for her and shouts at her to come back down, the crowd doesn't know she's blind, and she uses her other senses to have a very successful jump. She is again the diving girl, and her voiceover tells us that she continued diving for 11 more years. She and Al get married and live happily ever after
.
1991 in film
The year 1991 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*April 28 - Bonnie Raitt marries actor Michael O'Keefe in New York* Terminator 2: Judgment Day, became one of the landmarks for science fiction action films with its groundbreaking visual effects from Industrial Light & Magic.*November...
about Sonora Webster Carver
Sonora Webster Carver
Sonora Webster Carver, February 2, 1904-September 20, 2003, was an American entertainer, most notable as one of the first female horse divers. Webster answered an ad placed by William "Doc" Carver in 1923 for a diving girl and soon earned a place in circus history...
, a rider of diving horse
Diving horse
A diving horse is an attraction that was popular in the mid 1880s, in which a horse would dive into a pool of water, sometimes from as high as 60 feet up.-History:...
s. It is based on events in her life as told in her memoir A Girl and Five Brave Horses
A Girl and Five Brave Horses
A Girl and Five Brave Horses is a memoir by Sonora Webster Carver published in 1961. It inspired the Disney film Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken which is based on, but does not exactly follow, the book. At the age of 20, Sonora Webster Carver joined William Frank Carver's Wild West Show which...
. It was filmed in the small town of Orangeburg, South Carolina
Orangeburg, South Carolina
Orangeburg, also known as "The Garden City," is the principal city in and the county seat of Orangeburg County, South Carolina, United States. The city is also the fifth oldest city in the state of South Carolina. The city population was 12,765 at the 2000 census, within a Greater Orangeburg...
on the McCants' family farm.
She and her sister Arnette French heard the movie together, but she was dissatisfied with its romanticism of her life despite its appeal to the general public.
Cast
- Gabrielle AnwarGabrielle AnwarGabrielle Anwar is an English actress. She is known for her role as Margaret Tudor on The Tudors, for dancing the tango with Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman and for her current role as Fiona Glenanne on USA's Burn Notice.- Early life :...
as Sonora Webster - Michael SchoefflingMichael SchoefflingMichael Schoeffling is an American former actor, and male model, best known for playing Jake Ryan in Sixteen Candles, Kuch in Vision Quest, and Joe in Mermaids.-Early life & education:...
as Al Carver - Cliff RobertsonCliff RobertsonClifford Parker "Cliff" Robertson III was an American actor with a film and television career that spanned half of a century. Robertson portrayed a young John F. Kennedy in the 1963 film PT 109, and won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the movie Charly...
as Doc Carver - Dylan KussmanDylan KussmanDylan Kussman is a film and television actor who played the part of Richard Cameron in the 1989 film Dead Poets Society as well as Dr. Allen Painter in The Way of the Gun in 2000. He has also appeared in such films as Leatherheads and X2 , and is the writer, director, and star of the online noir...
as Clifford - Kathleen YorkKathleen YorkKathleen "Bird" York is an actress, screenwriter and Oscar nominated songwriter-recording artist.As a screenwriter, York has written projects for John Wells Warner Brothers, Sony, Paramount and has just completed a one hour pilot for Fox Television Studios...
as Marie - Frank RenzulliFrank RenzulliFrank Renzulli is an American film actor, writer and producer.As an Emmy nominated writer and Golden Globe winner, Renzulli has written teleplays for The Sopranos, mainly in the first two seasons, and another Emmy nominated episode in the third season of the highly acclaimed television show...
as Mr. Slater
Plot
Sonora Webster is a stubborn orphan who lives with her aunt during the Depression. She has a love of horses, and one day before school, loses a bet that hers can jump a fence. It breaks and the cows get out, forcing her to be late. After she is given detention, her aunt tells her that because of her behavior and the family's financial difficulties, she is going to be put into an orphanage. Instead, she slips out of the house during the night.Sonora ends up at a county fair and sees Marie perform as a diving girl. A diving girl jumps onto a horse as it runs up a steep platform just before it leaps off into a pool of water. She then informs Doc Carver that she is his new diving girl. He informs her that she is too young, her body isn't developed enough, and tells her she should go back home. She stubbornly twists her arms and legs around a chair to show him she won't leave until he gives her the job. Instead, he just places her and the chair outside of his tent.
Ending up in the stable with the horses, Doc sees how talented Sonora is with them and decides to give her a job as a stablehand. 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 dove 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, 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 her, hides his letters from her. He and the new stablehand Clifford (who 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. They work together to heal him and are walking him when Doc and Clifford return, telling them that the show is over as there is no more work to be had.
Al asks Sonora why she never wrote him, and she tells him that she never received any letters. They are both confused over the missing letters, but put it behind them. It is then learned that he got a deal with the Steel Pier
Steel Pier
Steel Pier is a amusement pier in Atlantic City, New Jersey, located opposite The Boardwalk from Trump Taj Mahal.The pier was owned by Trump Entertainment Resorts until 2011, when it was sold to the Catanoso Family under the "Steel Pier Associates, LLC" name. The Catanosos previously leased the...
in Atlantic City
Atlantic City, New Jersey
Atlantic City is a city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States, and a nationally renowned resort city for gambling, shopping and fine dining. The city also served as the inspiration for the American version of the board game Monopoly. Atlantic City is located on Absecon Island on the coast...
to perform the show. This seems to patch up old differences, and just as everyone seems to be getting along, Doc passes away en route to there, apparently from a heart attack. Now Al takes over his father's role as a presenter. On his first day, he is extremely nervous, so Sonora finds Doc's famous fringed jacket to give him confidence. When she finds it, she also finds one of his old letters, confessing his love for her. When she finds him, she lets him know she feels the same.
Meanwhile, Clifford has acquired a rusted-out motorcycle from a friend in Atlantic City and plans to refurbish it to working status; Sonora is unimpressed and laughs at the notion.
Al and Sonora perform at Atlantic City in front of their their largest audience. Everyone is nervous and excited. As she is climbing the ladder, he proposes to her. She accepts and gets ready to do the jump. The horse, a jittery stallion who is not her usual partner Lightning, is anxious because of all the noise from the band and the crowd, and just before the jump a cymbal crashes loudly, which causes him to falter and trip. Sonora keeps her eyes open as they fall into the water. Both of them make it, but her vision is impaired, yet she hides this from Al and won't seek medical attention for the condition.
The next day when she wakes up, Sonora discovers she can't see. The doctor diagnoses detached retinas in both her eyes due to uncontrolled hemorrhaging behind them (a result of the high impact of the dive and her open eyes at the point of it) and tells her the condition is permanent and she will be blind for the rest of her life. In order to avoid a breach of contract lawsuit, Al must find another diving girl within a week, and calls Marie, who returns to be it.
Clifford has been working on his "new" motorcycle and gets it back in working condition. He demonstrates his new act for a small crowd including Al and Sonora -- it is an enormous metal ball in which he rides around inside on the motorcycle, doing loop after loop. The crowd is amazed and he is pleased with his new "death-defying" act.
Meanwhile, Sonora misses diving terribly, and feels utterly helpless and like a burden to Al. She tells him of her desires to dive again, and indicates her unique bond with Lightning as evidence that she could do it again as she knows him so well. She and Al work together to try to train her to mount him again, much the same way she and Doc once worked together earlier to train her to do so in motion. She is stubborn and refuses to give up, but Al forces her to accept the fact that it is impossible. She spends some quiet time with Lightning that night.
The next day, with the help of Clifford, Marie is locked in her dressing room, and Sonora climbs the platform. Though Al is scared for her and shouts at her to come back down, the crowd doesn't know she's blind, and she uses her other senses to have a very successful jump. She is again the diving girl, and her voiceover tells us that she continued diving for 11 more years. She and Al get married and live happily ever after
Happy ending
A happy ending is an ending of the plot of a work of fiction in which almost everything turns out for the best for the protagonists, their sidekicks, and almost everyone except the villains....
.
See also
- Sonora Webster CarverSonora Webster CarverSonora Webster Carver, February 2, 1904-September 20, 2003, was an American entertainer, most notable as one of the first female horse divers. Webster answered an ad placed by William "Doc" Carver in 1923 for a diving girl and soon earned a place in circus history...
- William "Doc" CarverWilliam Frank CarverWilliam Frank "Doc" Carver was a late 19th century sharpshooter and creator of a popular diving horse attraction. He was born at Winslow, Illinois, to William Daniel Carver, a physician, and Deborah Tohapenes Carver . The parents had migrated to Illinois from Pennsylvania in 1849...
- Diving horseDiving horseA diving horse is an attraction that was popular in the mid 1880s, in which a horse would dive into a pool of water, sometimes from as high as 60 feet up.-History:...