“Close your eyes!” I yelped across the pool as my 5-year-old took her very first plunge off the diving board this summer. This garnered quite the funny look from her dad. But, inside me, I knew I was right: Jumping into a pool with your eyes open can make you go blind. I saw it in a movie once and never forgot that warning — or the movie, for that matter. Released in 1991, Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken was a film based on the memoir A Girl and Five Brave Horses, which told the true life story of an actual person, Sonora Webster. Do you remember the chokehold that movie had on us in our youth?
Of course, if you grew up in the ’90s, you know what I’m talking about. And, if you live without anxiety, you probably know my daughter is just fine. After all, there is a bit of a difference between my daughter leaping haphazardly from a board suspended two feet from the water and the magnificent horse-diving feats completed by Sonora. Still, that memory and panic reminded me exactly how obsessed I was with Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken in grade school. I couldn’t possibly be the only one, right? And it’s still obviously just as brilliant as I remember… right?
Time for a re-watch! (It’s on Disney+, by the way.)
The 30-Second Synopsis
If you weren’t a self-proclaimed “horse girl” in the ’90s or didn’t grow up oddly obsessed with anything set before the Great Depression, you have no idea what you missed. Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken follows a young orphan girl, Sonora Webster (played by Gabrielle Anwar), on her quest for fame. She sees an ad in the paper for a “diving horse girl” and makes her way to the fair, temporarily settling for a job as a stablehand but never giving up on her dream.
The people of the traveling circus, especially those associated with Dr. Carver’s Diving Horse Show, become a found family for her. The headstrong and pushy Dr. Carver acts almost as a father figure to Sonora. His son, Al, trains her when Carver pushes her requests aside, teaching her how to mount a moving horse and dive 40 feet into a pool below (yes, Al inevitably becomes Sonora’s love interest). After falling from a horse and dislocating her shoulder, the existing diving-horse girl, Marie, ends up unable to perform, and Sonora gets her wish.
But during a fateful performance in Atlantic City, the crash of a cymbal sends Sonora’s horse faltering, and she plunges into the pool (you guessed it) with her eyes open. The impact of the water on her eyes causes Sonora to go blind. Yet, she still won’t give up on her dream, even when her now-future-husband Al forbids it. With the help of an old friend (and death-defying motorcycle rider), Sonora hoodwinks her family and the crowd. She mounts and dives her horse, still blind, and continues to do so for another 11 years.
The Big Hitch
Wild Hearts is so dramatically done and yet so beautifully written that it’s hard to believe it’s true. But it is. Mostly.
And it is still so good. Mostly.
If you’re an adult who hasn’t seen Wild Hearts in a few decades (or ever), I 10/10 recommend you watch it. The cinematography, the story, the beautiful scenery, the horses, the actors — they all make the film worth your 90 minutes. It’s the perfect way to escape a bad day. Will I show it to my daughter, though? I haven’t fully decided.
It’s worth pointing out that the movie was released in 1991 and was set in the 1920s, both decades with much different standards than now. This isn’t some story a man made up to suit his own interests, either, but an honest-to-goodness true story about a real woman’s coming of age, her triumphs and her tragedies.
One of the most problematic aspects of Wild Hearts remains the relationship between Sonora and Al.
In real life, Sonora and Al had almost a 20-year age gap, and they met when she was in her teens. In the film, Sonora is of an indeterminate age but is still in school until she runs away. The actors had a 10-year age gap — Anwar was 21 then, and Schoeffling was 31. When you break down that number, it doesn’t seem too alarming, and given the norms of Depression Era courting, Sonora and Al’s partnership probably wasn’t scandalous back then, either.
The movie might honestly make the partnership worse, as Sonora’s youth is highlighted multiple times while Al is very clearly a grown man. Nothing more than a few kisses are shared (or even hinted at) on-screen between Sonora and Al. However, a very clear sense of romance pervades the plot (they even get engaged on-screen).
Because context is wildly important, so is the maturity of the viewer. While I don’t think Wild Hearts is a movie that needs to be turned off the minute my 5-year-old enters the room, I’d probably wait until she’s in her mid-teens to do a proper “showing” so that we can talk about things like consent and appropriate age gaps in modern society.
Feminism ~With Caveats~
I’m also not sure we can call Wild Hearts feminist anymore, though we certainly would have in the ’90s. On the surface, it’s about a headstrong girl who leaves behind a life of abuse to chase down what she wants in life. Time after time, Sonora is told no and pushes back. She literally goes blind and is told she can’t pursue her passion anymore, only for her to do exactly that. Sonora Webster was a feminist icon in the Depression Era, and the movie version of her became a feminist icon for horse girls everywhere in the ’90s.
Still, there are a few things a modern feminist might take issue with.
Sonora and Marie’s relationship is tenuous at best — they see each other as competition for Al and the job, and Marie is often catty and mean to Sonora. I think modern moms expect more from their female relationships and the women we share with our daughters. What was commonplace in 1924 is downright cringe-y in 2024. We don’t want to view other women through the lens of competition.
Sonora’s relationship with the men in her life is also troublesome. Al continuously supports Sonora’s dreams, even at the onset of her blindness. And, yes, that’s what we want from a partner for us and for our daughters. The issue? The constant need for male permission. Every step of Sonora’s journey seems to require approval from the men in her life. The men hold the reins, so to speak.
Granted, that likely wasn’t problematic in the ’20s and was barely seen as such in the ’90s. It’s only under the magnifying glass of modern feminism that this theme becomes an issue. Do I want my daughter to think that all of her achievements must be met with the approval of men? If I’m being honest and ornery, I’d say quite the opposite.
So, where does Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken stand in the long list of great movies from my childhood? Honestly, it still ranks high. Sonora’s story is brilliant and beautiful under a magnifying glass from any decade. I’m almost thankful for the near-heart attack poolside that triggered the memory. And I will absolutely let my kiddo marvel at the diving horse girl in Wild Hearts… someday. I’m just going to wait until I can properly explain some things first.
