Line #27 Film/TheManWhoCameBack


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_man_who_came_back.jpg]]
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3	''The Man Who Came Back'' is a 2008 American Western film directed by Glen Pitre. It stars Creator/EricBraeden, Creator/BillyZane, Creator/GeorgeKennedy, and Creator/ArmandAssante.
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5	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.
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7	!!Tropes:
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9	* BodybagTrick: Paxton [[FakingTheDead fakes his death]] while suffering UnwillingSuspension in prison, so he will be loaded into a coffin and carried outside.
10	* BoundAndGagged: 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.
11	* CeilingCling: 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 [[FakeoutEscape 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.
12	* DeathByMaterialism: Kate drowns while trying to retrieve the bag of coins she dropped in the river while fleeing from Paxton.
13	* FakeoutEscape: 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 [[CeilingCling 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.
14	* FakingTheDead: While suffering UnwillingSuspension in the prison, Paxton pretends to have died in order to escape.
15	* GardeningVarietyWeapon: During the massacre of the former slaves, one of the former slaves uses a hoe to knock one of TheKlan off his horse where he is set upon by others in the camp.
16	* GetIntoJailFree: In prison, Paxton deliberately attacks a guard to get himself sent to 'the Hole' so he can put his escape plan into operation.
17	* GottaKillThemAll: After escaping prison, Paxton returns to Thibodaux determined to kill everyone who was involved in the lynching, his KangarooCourt, and the death of his family.
18	* GroinAttack: Paxton makes good on an earlier threat to the lecherous Amos, who had raped the HookerWithAHeartOfGold who was aiding Paxton, by shooting him in the groin and leaving him to bleed out.
19	* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Creator/JenniferODell 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.
20	* ItWorksBetterWithBullets: 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.
21	* KangarooCourt: 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.
22	* TheKlan: 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.
23	* NoNameGiven: Despite playing an important role in the plot, the HookerWithAHeartOfGold played by Creator/JenniferODell is never named, and is only identified in the credits as 'Prostitute'.
24	* PistolWhipping: During the fight in the plantation store, Billy Duke cold cocks Paxton with his pistol.
25	* QuoteToQuoteCombat: Paxton and the preacher exchange Bible quotations during Paxton's KangarooCourt: 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.
26	* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: After escaping prison, Paxton returns to Thibodaux determined to [[GottaKillThemAll kill everyone]] who was involved in the lynching, his KangarooCourt, and the death of his family. He proceeds to cut a swathe through corrupt townsfolk in the space of a few days.
27	* ShovelStrike: 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.
28	* SlashedThroat: Paxton kills the first of the vigilantes he finds following his escape by slitting the man's throat while he sleeps.
29	* ATasteOfTheLash: 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.
30	* UnwillingSuspension: The warden has Paxton hung by his wrists until he dies. Paxton [[FakingTheDead pretends to die]] in order to escape.
31	* VorpalPillow: Worried that Caleb is going to tell the truth about Paxton's KangarooCourt, Billy smothers him with a pillow.
32	* WardensAreEvil: The philosophy of the warden of the prison Paxton is sent to is "Prisoners are not human. They are livestock."
33	* WaterTorture: When [[WardensAreEvil 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.
34	* WhatADrag: Paxton kills Judge Duke by dragging him behind a galloping horse from the plantation to the middle of town.
35	* WhipOfDominance: Even though slavery has officially ended, Billy Duke still carries a whip as he did when he was a slave owner, and is [[ATasteOfTheLash not afraid to use it]] on his freed workers to keep them in line.
36	* WorkingOnTheChainGang: After the KangarooCourt railroads Paxton into the state prison, he is put to work on the chain gang; where he immediately begins formulating an escape plan.
37	* WouldHitAGirl: 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.
38	* WouldHurtAChild: 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.

Context Film / TheManWhoCameBack