The Romance Film That Traumatized ’90s Kids Is Now On Disney+
Think about the movies that made you cry in the ’90s. There’s My Girl and Stepmom, sure, but there’s an iconic movie you may have forgotten about.
As soon as you see the title, you might have flashbacks–especially if you’re a Millennial. You might picture the horses. The diving platform. The guy who played Jake Ryan in Sixteen Candles. Yep, we’re talking about Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken (1991)–and you can finally stream it online.
What happens in Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken?
Set in the 1930s, Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken is about a young woman, Sonora (Gabrielle Anwar) suffering through the troubles of the Great Depression. She just wants to be different, but cutting off her long hair and getting into fights does nothing but get her prized horse Lightning sold off by her terrible aunt.
Rather than deal with her broken family life, Sonora runs away to join the traveling circus. She has dreams of becoming a Diving Girl–a girl atop a horse that dives into a small pool from great heights–but she’ll need to convince the circus owner first.
And if she falls for Al Carver (Michael Schoeffling) along the way, that’s all the better. (And if we can fall in love along with her, even moreso.)
Why did Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken become such a hit with Millennial girls?
Michael Schoeffling for the girlies who crushed on Jake Ryan alongside Molly Ringwald in Sixteen Candles. Horses galore for the horse girls in your elementary school. The idea that you can be whatever you want to be, just like the girl power vibes of the ’90s. The absolutely tragic moments of the film (that I won’t spoil just in case you haven’t watched this yet). It all coalesced to form a ’90s romance that Millennial women still talk about–and cry about–today.
I’m not even kidding. When I was making friends with a woman my age a few years ago, we literally brought up this movie and gushed about how big of a deal it was for us during our formative years. Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken was the moment and continues to be decades later.
Where to watch Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken
Despite this movie sticking into the collective unconscious of the Millennial generation, it hasn’t exactly been easy to find for the last few decades. Sure, in the ’90s you could catch it playing on TV if you were lucky, but those days are gone. It’s not exactly a traditional Netflix movie, either. But here’s where we get lucky: It was produced by Disney+.
While the entire Disney catalog isn’t on the mega-corporation’s streaming service, we at least get this 1991 classic. So if you’re ready to transport yourself back to when you were a kid–or introduce it to a younger generation–you can watch Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken on Disney+. (Just get the tissues ready.)