The Man Who Came Back is a 2008 American Western film directed by Glen Pitre. It stars Eric Braeden, Billy Zane, George Kennedy, and Armand Assante.
In the aftermath of the Civil War, former slaves are forced to work tirelessly for meagre wages on a Louisiana plantation. To add insult to injury, they were sometimes paid in "script", worthless currency only accepted at the plantation's overpriced store, leading to the workers accumulating debts to the plantation owners. The cycle of debt made it impossible for these freemen to achieve true freedom, and they decided to strike to better their lives. Unfortunately, this action provokes the wrath of the most powerful figures in the town, including the town sheriff, preacher, and a power-hungry man named Billy Duke, who leads a gang of violent thugs. Reese Paxton, a white overseer, takes up the workers' cause but finds himself and his family targeted by Duke's rage. Despite assistance from a Yankee lawyer, Paxton is convicted by a corrupt judge and sent to prison. After enduring physical and emotional torture, Paxton eventually returns, seeking revenge against those who wronged him.
Tropes:
- Bodybag Trick: Paxton fakes his death while suffering Unwilling Suspension in prison, so he will be loaded into a coffin and carried outside.
- Bound and Gagged: Reese Paxton is bound, gagged and locked in a cage as he is being transported to prison, and can watch helplessly and grunt in frustration and anguish as he watches Billy Duke murder his wife and son.
- Ceiling Cling: In his first escape attempt, Paxton deliberately gets himself confined to 'the Hole', then digs a shallow hole in the dirt floor to make it look like he has tunneled his way out. He then clings to the roof of the cell. When the guard checks on him and sees the hole, he runs off to raise the alarm and Paxton slips out the door he left open.
- Death by Materialism: Kate drowns while trying to retrieve the bag of coins she dropped in the river while fleeing from Paxton.
- Fakeout Escape: In his first escape attempt, Paxton deliberately gets himself confined to 'the Hole', then digs a shallow hole in the dirt floor to make it look like he has tunneled his way out. He then clings to the roof of the cell. When the guard checks on him and sees the hole, he runs off to raise the alarm and Paxton slips out the door he left open.
- Faking the Dead: While suffering Unwilling Suspension in the prison, Paxton pretends to have died in order to escape.
- Gardening-Variety Weapon: During the massacre of the former slaves, one of the former slaves uses a hoe to knock one of The Klan off his horse where he is set upon by others in the camp.
- Get into Jail Free: In prison, Paxton deliberately attacks a guard to get himself sent to 'the Hole' so he can put his escape plan into operation.
- Gotta Kill Them All: After escaping prison, Paxton returns to Thibodaux determined to kill everyone who was involved in the lynching, his Kangaroo Court, and the death of his family.
- Groin Attack: Paxton makes good on an earlier threat to the lecherous Amos, who had raped the Hooker with a Heart of Gold who was aiding Paxton, by shooting him in the groin and leaving him to bleed out.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Jennifer O'Dell plays a prostitute who allows the protagonist Reese Paxton to hide in her room at the cathouse and keeps him hidden when the bad guys are searching for him: refusing to give him up even when Billy Duke tortures her with a cigar.
- It Works Better with Bullets: When Kate comes into the bedroom to make sure her husband Caleb is dead, she finds Paxton waiting for her. She grabs Caleb's revolver off the table, points it at Paxton and pulls the trigger. The hammer falls on an empty chamber and Paxton just smiles, saying that he is luckier than her.
- Kangaroo Court: White overseer Reese Paxton steps up to demand justice for his workers, but Billy Duke's rage turns on Paxton and his family. Despite assistance from a Yankee attorney, Paxton is convicted by Billy's father - the corrupt Judge Duke.
- The Klan: Billy, Amos, the warden and the rest of their posse don white hoods before the ride into the camp of the former slaves and start shooting them down in their search for Paxton.
- No Name Given: Despite playing an important role in the plot, the Hooker with a Heart of Gold played by Jennifer O'Dell is never named, and is only identified in the credits as 'Prostitute'.
- Pistol-Whipping: During the fight in the plantation store, Billy Duke cold cocks Paxton with his pistol.
- Quote-to-Quote Combat: Paxton and the preacher exchange Bible quotations during Paxton's Kangaroo Court: Paxton trying to get the preacher to tell the truth and admit his part in the lynching, and the preacher justifying his perjury and mistreatment of the former slaves.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After escaping prison, Paxton returns to Thibodaux determined to kill everyone who was involved in the lynching, his Kangaroo Court, and the death of his family. He proceeds to cut a swathe through corrupt townsfolk in the space of a few days.
- Shovel Strike: When Delbert attacks Paxton with an axe at Caleb's place, Paxton grabs a shovel to defend himself. After knocking the axe out of Delbert's hand, Paxton kills him with a shovel strike to the head.
- Slashed Throat: Paxton kills the first of the vigilantes he finds following his escape by slitting the man's throat while he sleeps.
- A Taste of the Lash: Even though slavery has officially ended, Billy Duke still carries a whip as he did when he was a slave owner, and uses it to inflict a merciless whipping on Grandpa whenthe catches the old man and his family attempting to leave the plantation. The scars on Grandpa's back reveal that endured many such whippings when he was a slave.
- Unwilling Suspension: The warden has Paxton hung by his wrists until he dies. Paxton pretends to die in order to escape.
- Vorpal Pillow: Worried that Caleb is going to tell the truth about Paxton's Kangaroo Court, Billy smothers him with a pillow.
- Wardens Are Evil: The philosophy of the warden of the prison Paxton is sent to is "Prisoners are not human. They are livestock."
- Water Torture: When the Warden recaptures the escaped Paxton on the shores of the lake, he has his guards hold Paxton down and repeatedly shove his head underwater: holding him down a little bit longer each time until all the fight is taken out of him.
- What a Drag: Paxton kills Judge Duke by dragging him behind a galloping horse from the plantation to the middle of town.
- Whip of Dominance: Even though slavery has officially ended, Billy Duke still carries a whip as he did when he was a slave owner, and is not afraid to use it on his freed workers to keep them in line.
- Working on the Chain Gang: After the Kangaroo Court railroads Paxton into the state prison, he is put to work on the chain gang; where he immediately begins formulating an escape plan.
- Would Hit a Girl: Billy Duke shows no hesitation in murdering Paxton's wife and tossing her body down the well. Later, he tortures a prostitute by burning her with a cigar in an attempt to extract Paxton' location from her. According to Paxton, during the war he bayoneted women and children in order to inflate his count of the number of Yankees he had killed.
- Would Hurt a Child: Billy Duke shows no hesitation in murdering Paxton's young son and tossing his body down the well. According to Paxton, during the war he bayoneted women and children in order to inflate his count of the number of Yankees he had killed.
