This documentary recounts the 50-year story of Mexican American miners and their struggle to shape the course of Arizona history between 1903 and 1947. The program profiles the rise and fall of the sister cities of Clifton-Morenci, where the mining of copper ore governed the lives of all the inhabitants. Using archival footage and the testimony of witnesses, the film examines the minero’s struggles for equal pay and fair working conditions.
Two men are released from the Arizona Territorial Prison at Yuma in 1898. One, The Dutchman, is out to get both gold and revenge from certain people in a small mining town who had him imprisoned unjustly. The other, McBain, is just trying to go straight, but that is easier said than done once The Dutchman involves him in his gold theft scheme. Based on the 1949 novel The Asphalt Jungle by W. R. Burnett, the story is given an 1898 setting. It is the second film adaptation of the novel following 1950's noir classic The Asphalt Jungle.
