Yet, one actor whose darkest performance often gets overlooked isRoy Scheiders aging assassin in 1989sCohen & Tate.
Scheiders casting in an otherwise small indie film came at an interesting time in his career.
Additionally, he earned critical acclaim and a Best Actor Oscar nomination for playingBob Fossein 1979sAll That Jazz.
Custom Image by Zanda Rice
What Is ‘Cohen & Tate’ About?
Cohen & Tates opening sequence is reminiscent ofWalter Hills48 HRS.
asit sets up the contrasting styles of its antagonistic leads with a shockingly violent sequence involving child endangerment.
Image via MGM.
One significant moment midway through the film is when the killers get stopped at a police roadblock.
Instead of surrendering themselves, the killers hold Travis at gunpoint and force the police to handcuff themselves.
Then, to keep the police off their tail, Tate blows up the patrol cars on the roadblock.
Image via Hemdale Film Corporation
The story never fully details why the Texas mobster hired Cohen and Tate for this specific assignment.
For all hisTerminator-like presence, Tate is too reckless and mentally troubled to be employed.
He lives like a once great warrior about to be put to pasture.
Cohen & Tate follows the tense journey of two hitmen tasked with delivering a young boy to their shadowy employers. The dynamic between the older, seasoned Cohen and the volatile, aggressive Tate is strained further by the boy’s cunning efforts to pit them against each other, testing their loyalty and resolve.
Ideally, someone in Travis position would find a way out and allow the hitmen to kill each other.
Cohen & Tateis available to rent on YouTube in the U.S.
