Film Review: Cohen and Tate (1988)

Many innocent people get into a lot of trouble for merely being at the wrong place at the wrong time. That includes young protagonist of Cohen and Tate, 1988 thriller written and directed by Eric Red. 9-year old Travis Knight (played by Harley Cross) has witnessed a murder of high ranking mobster in Texas, which resulted in him and his family being put into protective custody in a remote house in Oklahoma. Other high ranking members of Texas organised crime, on the other hand, also want to know what Travis actually saw and are willing even to bribe one of FBI agents protecting Travis. This allows two hit men – Cohen (played by Roy Scheider) and Tate (played by Adam Baldwin) – to abduct the boy after taking out other agents and Travis’ parents. Their task is to bring Travis to Houston where he would be interrogated. As they drive, Travis soon sees that their abductors are two rather different character – Cohen is older, more experienced, calmer and professional, while Tate is younger, arrogant and apparently likes killing too much. Travis gradually begins playing two abductors against each other in hope that this would allow him to escape and thus save his life.

Eric Red is best known as the author of script for The Hitcher, film that became one of the most iconic road thrillers of all time. Cohen and Tate represented his directorial debut. Made with relatively low budget, it is a triumph of simplicity and “less is more” approach. Red’s script deals with exposition in opening titles. Plot is limited on a single day and there are only three major characters in the film, which they spend most of the time interacting with each other in different but believable ways. Although heavy on dialogue and characterisation (which probably played its part in the film’s initial failure at the box office), Cohen and Tate features couple of short but intense and very violent action scenes. Red claimed that his main source of the inspiration was John Ford’s classic western The Searchers, but the more experienced cinephiles might see the influence of The Hit, British road thriller about team of bickering hitmen. Film benefits a lot from small but dedicated cast. Roy Scheider, one of the greatest stars of New Hollywood, is very comfortable in the role of the cold, efficient hitman who struggles not only with traces of past humanity but also with limitations of old age. Alan Baldwin, one of the more underrated actors of his generation, nowadays specialised for roles of government officials, works very hard in one of his rare major roles. His performance is impressive but suffers in comparison with more experienced Scheider; at times Baldwin allows himself a little bit of overacting. Child actor Harley Cross is solid, but his accent at times comes and goes. Despite those flaws and its relative obscurity, Cohen and Tate with its short running time, economic approach and simple story can be recommended even for the viewers that don’t have too much fondness for road thrillers.

RATING: 7/10 (+++)

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