Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday felt a little odd watching some scenes in Brad Pitt’s new film:
“… [I]n “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” … an African Pygmy befriends the title character, a young man in an old man’s body. While the two explore the racier pleasures that New Orleans has to offer, the Pygmy — in the film he’s called Ngunda Oti — cheerfully tells Benjamin of his various adventures, which happen to include being put in a zoo and exhibited in the monkey house. It’s that scene that set my stomach churning. Because it was Ota Benga who, in 1906, was actually put on display in the Bronx Zoo. And it was my great-great-great-uncle who put him there.”
This movie was good, but I don’t know that it deserved the slew of Oscar nominations it received.