The true story of how Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa allowed a Hollywood crew to film him in battle, altering the course of film and military history in the process. Early movie giants D.W. Griffin and Harry Aiken send Frank Thayer to Mexico to persuade the cash-strapped, publicity-hungry Villa to let them film his revolution. Stepping into the literal cross fire, Thayer's crew risk their lives in the mingling of fiction and reality. The two make their movie and its original U.S. release helps change public opinion in Villa's favor and proves "the lens is mightier than the sword".