Gawp at the overcooked 1941 ad and reflect on how it all went so horribly wrong

Watching Steven Spielberg’s sprawling 1941 is an odd experience. You find yourself thinking “This is supposed to be a comedy, right?” on more than one occasion during the long, desperate stretches where nary a laugh can be found. The director of Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind had no fear at that point of a lackluster effort derailing his career, but still, there it is: the other 1970s movie starring Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, the one that isn’t funny. Jake and Elwood Blues are/were not amused.

That said, one wishes that Hollywood would shuck modern focus grouped marketing and go back to promotional materials like the two-page spread you see above, eschewing the bland, photoshopped, Sturzanesque yawn-fests that have become the standard for film posters. Even if it ain’t pretty, you can’t help but stare at it for a little while.