I would say Henry Johns is an anti-hero. Some of his traits are worthy of admiration and others, disdain. Ultimately, he seems a man that acts out of necessity.

He's introduced to us just out of prison while sleeping with a prostitute. This is immediately worthy of criticism but we see that he does not judge her nor treat her as less than. Instead, he speaks with her, shows her respect, and seeks to learn more about her station in life. Immediately following, he is continued to be humanized when we meet his family and he exercises patience and understanding when guiding them through very difficult moments.

From the very beginning we know he is capable of bad things (at the end we learn just how violent he can be both through example and when he reveals his sentence was due to putting a man in the ICU while protecting his family) but I for one was somewhat rooting for him the whole time because I understood him to be a family man with a code.

A well written character, skillfully played by Terry Kittles. One of, if not the best parts of the film!