Primal Fear follows defense attorney Martin Vail, played by Richard Gere. He takes on the case of Aaron Stampler. Edward Norton plays Aaron, a timid altar boy accused of murdering a prominent archbishop.
Collider ranks the film No. 7 on its list of the 10 greatest legal thrillers of all time. The outlet credited Norton’s star-making performance as the film’s greatest asset. It was his feature film debut, which earned him a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role and an Academy Award nomination.
Time also included the film among its list of the best courtroom dramas ever made. The outlet praised the film’s twist ending as one of the most memorable of the entire decade.
Laura Linney co-stars as the prosecutor and Martin’s ex, adding tension both inside and outside the courtroom.
Richard Gere in a press conference for Primal Fear.
The Performance Behind Primal Fear’s Most Talked-About Ending
Time specifically singled out the film’s ending as one of the most memorable of the 1990s. The outlet compared its impact to that decade’s other major twist, The Sixth Sense.
Much of that impact rests on Norton’s performance as Aaron. Time called his portrayal “flawless.” The publication described him as a guileless kid who might be suffering from multiple personality disorder.
Collider echoed that praise, calling the role a star-making moment for Norton. The outlet described his performance as “phenomenal, mercurial and layered yet still believable.”
Gere anchors the film as Martin, the arrogant defense attorney who gradually becomes convinced of his client’s innocence. Time described him as “sly,” playing well against Laura Linney’s “headstrong, principled” prosecutor.
Their history as exes adds an extra layer of tension to the courtroom scenes. That dynamic blends the formula of a legal thriller with something closer to a screwball comedy.
Both outlets agreed the trial scenes themselves are tightly constructed and satisfying. Thirty years later, the film’s ending is still cited as one of the genre’s best.
In 1940, Gary Cooper starred in a critically acclaimed film that earned awards and has a rare perfect 100% Rotten Tomatoes score. Decades later, The Westerner has recently been ranked as one of the greatest Westerns ever produced.
‘The Westerner’ Earning a Perfect Rotten Tomatoes Score Says a Lot
On Rotten Tomatoes, there is nothing that is more elusive than a perfect score. In fact, the website maintains a ranking of the “Best Movies of All Time,” which mostly features films that have failed to reach the 100% mark. Even legendary films like The Godfather, Rear Window, Schindler’s List, and Citizen Kane have fallen short of that achievement. On the other hand, Gary Cooper’s 1940 classic The Westerner earned a perfect 100% Rotten Tomatoes score.
In addition to earning that accolade decades later, The Westerner was celebrated upon its release, as it won and was nominated for Oscars. At the 13th Academy Awards, it was nominated for Best Art Direction (Black and White) and Best Writing (Original Story). Additionally, Walter Brennan won Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance as Judge Roy Bean in The Westerner.
Who Ranked ‘The Westerner’ Among the ‘Best Western Movies of All Time’?
On July 13, 2026, StudioBinder published its ranking of the “Best Western Movies of All Time.” That list included all-time classics like The Searchers, Unforgiven, Stagecoach, High Noon, Once Upon a Time in the West, and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. The Westerner was listed alongside those legendary films, as it was ranked No. 25.
There are many reasons why The Westerner is a classic movie that still holds up today. The most obvious highlight of the film is Walter Brennan’s stellar performance as Judge Roy Bean, an eccentric and funny character in a typically serious genre. Additionally, seeing how Gary Cooper’s Cole Harden maneuvers having to escape the grasp of such an unusual person is extremely compelling. Perhaps most of all, the film deserves praise for how well it blends comedy and drama in the Old West.
In The Westerner, Gary Cooper portrayed a drifter who is arrested for stealing a horse and is forced to face off against Judge Roy Bean. Directed by William Wyler, the film starred Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, Fred Stone, and Doris Davenport. Notably, the film’s architect, Wyler, was nominated for 12 Best Director Academy Awards during his career, which is the most anyone has ever earned in that category.
Sixty-four years ago, on August 30, 1962, Andrei Tarkovsky’s Ivan’s Childhood took the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, immediately announcing the arrival of one of cinema’s most formidable directors. While it shared this victory with Valerio Zurlini’s Family Chronicle, Tarkovsky’s film left Venice with something more enduring than the trophy: the reputation of a radically different kind of war movie.
Set during the Second World War, the Soviet film follows 12-year-old Ivan, an orphan who serves as a reconnaissance scout behind German lines. Yet Tarkovsky largely refuses the conventional machinery of battlefield heroics.
War is experienced through ruined landscapes, fractured memories, nightmares, and the psychological destruction of a child. The result did not celebrate military victory as much as it painted a devastating portrait of what warfare does to innocence.
A War Film That Started a Political Argument
Andrei Tarkovsky holding the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
Its politics were complicated. Ivan’s Childhood emerged during the Khrushchev Thaw and challenged the expectations of Soviet socialist realism by emphasizing individual suffering rather than uncomplicated patriotic triumph. Its dream sequences and intensely personal visual language became particularly controversial.
After Venice, sections of the Italian Communist press (notably the PCI newspaper L’Unità) attacked Tarkovsky for supposedly indulging in “bourgeois aestheticism” instead of sufficient class consciousness. As noted in the Criterion Collection essay:
“The Italian Communist press, however, accused the director of overplaying the lyrical elements and substituting detached bourgeois aestheticism for class-consciousness. Meanwhile, Jean-Paul Sartre came to Tarkovsky’s defense…”
Indeed, Jean-Paul Sartre intervened publicly in Tarkovsky’s defense, arguing that the film’s unusual style did not make it politically reactionary. In his letter to the editor, Sartre notes:
“How is it that for the first time in my knowledge the charge of schematism could be sustained against the articles that L’Unità and other leftwing newspapers devoted to Ivan’s Childhood which is one of the most beautiful films I have had the privilege of seeing in the last few years? It was given the highest award, the Golden Lion, by the Jury: but that has become a strange certificate of ‘occidentalism’ and contributed towards making Tarkovsky a petty bourgeois suspect with the Italian left seeing it with a bad eye. In truth, such distrustful judgements abandon to our middle classes, without real justification, a profoundly Russian and revolutionary film which expresses the sensibility of the young Soviet generations in a typical way.”
In another profound passage, Sartre wrote:
“War kills those who make it even if they survive it. And, in a still more profound sense: history, in one and the same movement, demands heroes, creates them and destroys them by rendering them incapable of living without suffering in the society they have contributed to forge.”
And so the ensuing debate turned the movie into something larger than a critical success: it became an argument over what politically meaningful cinema was supposed to look like.
The Anti-War Canon
That controversy has faded, but the film’s reputation has not. Ivan’s Childhood now sits comfortably among the most acclaimed war films ever made, with Rotten Tomatoes listing a 100% critics’ score from 27 reviews. Critics continue to praise its fusion of poetry, horror and psychological realism.
It wouldn’t be accurate to claim that the film has suddenly conquered every major “greatest film” poll, considering that, for example, Tarkovsky’s Andrei Rublev and Stalker, have generally achieved stronger positions in major canon-building surveys. Still, Ivan’s Childhood has maintained remarkable critical longevity.
It has appeared in Sight & Sound voting across decades, including the 2002, 2012 and 2022 editions, demonstrating that its stature has survived changing generations of filmmakers and critics. That is precisely why its anti-war status carry significant weight.
Tarkovsky did not need speeches about peace. He showed a child whose childhood had effectively been confiscated by war. More than six decades after Venice, Ivan’s Childhood remains a haunting example of how an anti-war film can achieve greatness not by shouting, but by making the human cost impossible to ignore.
Star Wars Zero Company has been having a moment this week; it’s one of the top sellers on Steam, and gameplay clips have gone viral on social media. On top of that, the game has received excellent reviews, with an 85 on Metacritic based on 47 critic reviews. Unfortunately, many of the people who helped make the game happen in the first place haven’t been able to come together and celebrate the game’s success because they were furloughed before launch.
“A rep for Bit Reactor confirmed to Game File today that the studio had furloughed many of its workers prior to the game’s release. They said it was a difficult decision and one that had been made before it was clear how launch would go. The rep emphasized that the call to do this was Bit Reactor’s alone (meaning not from publisher EA nor Star Wars license holder Disney).”
Zachariah Scott, an Unreal Engine Generalist, took to LinkedIn to voice his displeasure with how the studio has handled the launch and firings.
“It is sick and weird to have all of these EA and Disney folks as well as Bitreactor Senior staff making all of these 10/10 posts about Star Wars : Zero Company being such a huge success and praising the work of the team while seemingly concealing the fact that the team was Furloughed weeks ago.
It is a gross but all to common sight to see, Another corporate game hitting the top of steam while the team is left looking for work and cut off from any possible profit sharing. It would be such a different story if they had been upfront about it earlier, and now it feels like they’re trying to keep the team in a holding pattern with good vibes and more empty promises.
I may be a bit biased as I was fired from bitreactor after being involuntarily put on medical leave and then fired after months where I was forbidden from explaining those facts to the team and my friends, who all just suddenly found out wasn’t there anymore. It seems like relevant context for me to share with the Bitreactor folks, who are in a precarious position where the only lifeline they have left is promises from the management team.
I wouldn’t take those odds”
The situation is an example of the weird space the gaming industry is in. To maximize profits, companies will cut corners and fire employees just to add a bit to the bottom line. Cutting the very people who made the game off from profit sharing is just the latest example of companies putting profits over people.
Now that the game has become such a big success and this story has come out, Bit Reactor has told Gamefile that the company “hopes to reinstate furloughed employees and restore their pay if Star Wars Zero Company proves successful.”
Given that the game has become such a big success, appealing to players who wouldn’t normally purchase games in the turn-based tactical genre, hopefully Bit Reactor will be true to their word and start rehiring the furloughed employees.
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REI’s Labor Day Sale and Clearance is live until Sept. 7, and camping gear is one of the categories worth digging through. If you’re looking for a camping chair for the first time in a while, they’ve gotten a lot more advanced, with options that even swing like a hammock. Nemo’s Stargaze Evo-X is one of the more premium picks in this arena, but it’s $80 off at the moment and more than worth your time if comfort is a non-negotiable for you.
Frame: Steel base, six points of contact, no assembly required
Features: Auto-recline, swinging, padded headrest, two cupholders
Setup: Unfolds in seconds, packs into a roll-top carry case with a shoulder strap
Best For: Car camping, backyard hangs, stargazing, tailgating
Let’s make one thing clear: This is nowhere close to a basic $10 folding camp chair. This is something far, far more special.
Tensioned straps let the seat drop into a deep enough recline that you’re looking almost straight up, which is the main point of the Stargaze chair lineup (to stargaze). To get there, you just lean back without having to mess with a lever or straps, and the same tension system lets the seat swing. Nemo also added extra padding to the hips, headrest, and pressure points in this version, a direct response to the main complaints about the original Stargaze.
That auto-recline and swing combination is not something you commonly find in chairs under $200, which is most of what you’re paying for here, even at the sale price. The steel frame means it weighs around 14 pounds, so this is best used for car camping, the yard, or tailgating. If you want something simpler and packable, take a look at Coleman’s basic camp chair, now on sale for $27.
$100 is still a lot for a camping chair, but you’re paying for features and quality that’s instantly felt. One shopper wrote that the old camp chairs don’t work for them anymore, but this one does, and it’s “the best addition I’ve made to my gear in a long time.”
Another shopper wrote, “Extremely comfortable and very easy to set up and take down.” This is definitely on the heavier side at around 14 pounds, so it’s not the best backpacking option, but reviewers said it’s perfect for car camping.
A new national map places Allentown, Pennsylvania, at No. 1 among the most challenging U.S. metropolitan areas for people with asthma—a distinction arriving as September’s seasonal rise in asthma emergencies begins.
The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America’s 2026 Asthma Capitals report ranks Detroit, Rochester, Philadelphia and Cleveland behind Allentown. Lakeland, Syracuse, Hartford, Charleston and Sacramento complete the top 10. The findings extend beyond those cities: CDC data show nearly 28 million Americans currently have asthma.
AAFA compared the 100 most-populated metropolitan areas in the contiguous United States using estimated asthma prevalence, asthma-related emergency-department visits and deaths. The factors “are not weighted equally,” the report notes.
Allentown had high prevalence and the highest emergency-visit rate among the cities analyzed. AAFA argues geography reflects policy as well as individual care: “Asthma outcomes are not simply a matter of individual health and responsibility,” but also how communities “fund, regulate, and prioritize.”
The map reveals a regional pattern. Seven of the top 20 metros are in Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut or Rhode Island. Yet the list stretches from California to Texas and Arizona.
Although AAFA’s newer claims analysis found asthma peaks can also occur during winter, emergency visits commonly begin climbing around September. Back-to-school illnesses, ragweed, mold, wildfire smoke and abrupt weather changes can converge now.
The CDC says asthma “causes wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and coughing at night or early in the morning.” For children, AAFA says asthma-related ER admissions “start to rise in September and continue to spike” alongside respiratory-virus season.
AAFA recommends reviewing a written Asthma Action Plan with a health care provider, taking controller medicines as prescribed, and monitoring air-quality and pollen forecasts. The World Health Organization emphasizes that asthma “can be managed with the right treatment” and advises people experiencing symptoms to “speak to a health professional.”
At home, the EPA recommends fixing leaks and keeping humidity between 30 and 50 percent to discourage mold.
For larger rooms, the Dyson Purifier Big+Quiet Formaldehyde BP04 uses HEPA H13-grade, activated-carbon and formaldehyde-destroying filtration. Dyson says it “captures gases and ultra fine particles” while reducing odors. An air purifier cannot treat asthma or replace prescribed medication, but it may support a plan for reducing indoor triggers.
Forty-eight years ago today, Styx released the album that gave fans two of the band’s most enduring rock songs.
Pieces of Eight, Styx’s eighth studio album, arrived on Sept. 1, 1978, following the massive success of the band’s breakthrough record, The Grand Illusion. The new album proved Styx wasn’t about to lose momentum.
The record featured three charting singles, including “Blue Collar Man (Long Nights),” which reached No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100, and “Renegade,” which climbed to No. 16.
Both songs were written by guitarist and vocalist Tommy Shaw and have remained among Styx’s best-known tracks.
It’s funny to think “Renegade,” which has become one of the band’s most popular songs, almost sounded very different. Shaw, 72, originally conceived the song as a slower, acoustic number before keyboardist Dennis DeYoung encouraged him to transform it into the hard-driving rock anthem fans know today.
Pieces of Eight became another major success for Styx, reaching No. 6 on the Billboard 200 and earning multi-platinum sales. It was also the second of four consecutive Styx albums to sell at least two million copies, a run that marked one of the band’s most successful periods.
Beyond its biggest singles, the album included “Sing for the Day,” another Shaw-penned track that reached the Top 50.
Nearly five decades later, Pieces of Eight remains a key chapter in Styx’s catalog, not just because it followed The Grand Illusion, but because it gave the band two songs that have continued to define its legacy: “Blue Collar Man” and “Renegade.”
Famed iced tea brand Saint James is expanding its horizons in the beverage space with the newly launched Saint James Yerba Mate. It’s a certified organic drink with “150mg of natural caffeine, 20-25 calories, and just 3- 4 g of sugar per bottle.”
Helping to roll out the new beverage line via a national campaign are Super Bowl-winning wide receiver turned football analyst Victor Cruz, Olympic gold-medal-winning hockey player Jack Hughes, and model/entrepreneur Isabela Rangel Grutman. These three people are used to having plenty to do every day and know the value of an organic boost to power through it. As co-CEO Brad Neumann puts it:
“Everyone’s day looks different, and so does the role Yerba Mate plays in it. Whether they’re training at the gym, leading business meetings, running to parent-teacher conferences, or simply getting through a busy day, our partners are all drinking Saint James to power them through their packed schedules.”
Additionally, Saint James Yerba Mate comes in three flavors: Mango Passionfruit, Raspberry Lemon, and Strawberry Tangerine. Each flavor is combined with yerba mate, the source of the caffeine, that’s been ethically sourced in South America.
Victor Cruz: “I Can Reach for Saint James Yerba Mate When I Need a Boost”
Saint James Yerba Mate bottles (Photo Credit: Saint James Yerba Mate)
Photo Credit: Saint James Yerba Mate
Cruz appears to be genuinely a fan of Saint James Yerba Mate. He shared exclusively with Men’s Journal:
“I’ve been a fan of Saint James for a while, so when they told me they were making a yerba mate, it felt like the perfect time to get more involved with the brand. As a former pro athlete, I’ve always had a pretty demanding schedule, and that hasn’t changed just because I’m not playing on Sundays anymore. I’m still constantly on the go, and I like knowing I can reach for Saint James Yerba Mate when I need a boost, without compromising on the quality of what I’m putting into my body. It just fits right into my lifestyle – whether I’m heading to a workout, picking up my daughter from school, running to a meeting, or whatever else the day throws at me.”
If you’re in the market for a new organic way to find some more energy in your day-to-day, you can try Saint James Yerba Mate, available for purchase on Amazon and SaintJamesIcedTea.com. Retail distribution is planned to expand to major big-box stores like Kroger and Albertsons. For a 12-pack, it costs $39.99.
On September 1, 1850, Swedish soprano Jenny Lind arrived in New York aboard the steamship Atlantic, stepping into a city already gripped by “Lind Mania.” Managed by P.T. Barnum, the singer had been promoted to American audiences as the “Swedish Nightingale,” and contemporary reporting captured the extraordinary scale of her celebrity.
The New York Daily Tribune estimated that 30,000 to 40,000 people crowded piers, ships, roofs and windows to catch a glimpse of her arrival. The scale of the reception is especially striking because Lind was still largely unknown to the American public as a performer.
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History notes that in 1849 almost nobody in the United States knew her, yet by September 1850 she had become one of the country’s most famous and celebrated women. Barnum’s advertising campaign had transformed an acclaimed European soprano into an American cultural phenomenon before most Americans had even heard her sing.
That’s not to say Lind’s reputation was, open and shut, a product of American publicity. She had already achieved extraordinary acclaim in Europe, where she was regarded as one of the leading singers of her generation.
Contemporary American coverage went even further: after her September 11 debut at Castle Garden, the New York Tribune declared her “the greatest singer we have ever heard.” The Tribune wrote (widely attributed to the paper’s music critic commonly identified in later accounts as John Sullivan Dwight or a staff writer for the Tribune):
“Jenny Lind’s first concert is over, and all doubts are at an end. She is the greatest singer we have ever heard, and her success is all that was anticipated from her genius and her fame.”
Note that the original 1850 New York Daily Tribune issue is held in major newspaper archives; free full-page scans of the specific review are not widely available without institutional access.
Modern sources likewise describe the historical perception of Lind in similarly exalted terms. HISTORY characterizes her as “the greatest opera performer in the world” in its account of her 1850 arrival, while the Barnum Museum describes her as the toast of England and Europe. HISTORY wrote:
“On September 1, 1850, Jenny Lind, the greatest opera performer in the world, arrives from Europe to the United States for a triumphant national tour…”
A Legacy That Still Defines Opera Celebrity
Lind’s American tour became one of the great commercial spectacles of the 19th century. Her first New York concert sold out 5,000 seats, while an auction pushed a single ticket as high as $225. Barnum and Lind’s concerts eventually generated more than $712,000 in receipts, an enormous sum for the period.
While there is no credible modern “greatest of all time” numerical ranking that places Lind at a specific position among every opera singer in history, her historical recognition says all that need said: she was regarded in her own era as arguably the greatest singer audiences had heard, and her unprecedented American reception helped establish the template for the modern international music superstar.
Forty-eight years ago today, a landmark horror movie that became extremely influential and was directed by a true icon of the genre premiered. Decades later, Dawn of the Dead continues to be widely praised as an all-time classic, as it has been included in rankings of the greatest horror films ever produced.
The Horror Classic ‘Dawn of the Dead’ Premiered 48 Years Ago Today
On September 1, 1978, the movie Dawn of the Dead premiered in Turin, Italy. The horror classic was directed by George A. Romero, an icon of the genre who also helmed Day of the Dead and the original version of Night of the Living Dead. However, in a fascinating twist, the version of the film that screened was different from the cut that most North Americans know best. The European version that debuted was screened under the alternative title, Zombi, and was edited under the supervision of another horror legend, Dario Argento.
As a Paste Magazine article on the different versions of Dawn of the Dead noted, the Zombi cut removed much of the film’s humor. It also changed the stock music from Romero’s cut. Instead, Argento used a score composed by the Italian progressive rock band Goblin.
It wouldn’t be until months after the Italian premiere that Dawn of the Dead would arrive in the United States. It debuted in America during the USA Film Festival on April 7, 1979. After that, the movie continued to roll out into other cities in the weeks that followed, and it premiered in Canada in June 1979.
Why Critics Still Rank ‘Dawn of the Dead’ Among the Greatest Horror Movies
Since Dawn of the Dead was originally released, the film has consistently been ranked among the greatest scary movies ever. There are many reasons why it is widely considered brilliant. Some examples include its commentary on mindless consumerism, its influence on the genre, and its status as both a critique of society and an intimate character study. Additionally, the movie has long been celebrated for combining humor with scares, as it managed to balance horrific situations with moments of real fun.
In addition to George A. Romero doing a stellar job writing and directing Dawn of the Dead, the film was highlighted by Tom Savini’s legendary special effects. The classic also included memorable performances from David Emge, Ken Foree, Scott H. Reiniger, and Gaylen Ross. Perhaps the film’s most lasting legacy is its greatest line of dialogue: “When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the Earth.”
For all those reasons and more, Dawn of the Dead is a staple of lists that rank the greatest horror films. In March 2026, Time Out ranked it at No. 9 on its updated list of the “best horror movies of all time.” Months earlier, in October 2025, Paste Magazine included it at No. 8 on its ranking of the same name. It is also featured on other similar lists, like a dynamic ranking of the “Best Horror Movies of All Time” from Rotten Tomatoes. Additionally, a February 2025 Collider ranking of “10 Must-Watch Zombie Movies” featured it at No. 1.
