the Curious Case of Benjamin Button

the nominations for oscars have just been announced and picture which
has dominated other than slumdog "The Curious Case of Benjamin
Button"..

Read the plot:> i found it amazing wanna catch the movie.. been
longggggg since i saw one..

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is a 1921 short story by F.
Scott Fitzgerald, first published in Colliers Magazine, and
subsequently anthologized in his book Tales of the Jazz Age
(occasionally published as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and
Other Jazz Age Stories).[1] Developed for years by the late Hollywood
mogul Ray Stark, the rights and story development were purchased from
the Ray Stark Estate and adapted for a 2008 film of the same name
directed by David Fincher.


The story begins with the birth of the protagonist, Benjamin in 1860.
Benjamin is born with the physical appearance of a seventy-year-old
man, and when his father first visits him mere hours after his birth
he is already able to speak. To avoid embarrassment, Benjamin's father
forces him to shave his beard and dye his hair in order to look
younger. He also forces Benjamin to play with the other neighborhood
boys, and buys him toys and orders him throughout the day to play with
them. Benjamin obediently plays with them, but only to please his
father as Benjamin has more joy in smoking his father's cigars,
reading encyclopedias, and talking to his grandfather. He is even sent
to kindergarten at the age of five, but is quickly withdrawn from the
class after repeated instances of falling asleep during kid-oriented
activities.
As the story progresses it soon becomes apparent to the Button family
that Benjamin is aging backwards which astounds them beyond belief. At
the age of eighteen he enrolls in Yale University. However, having run
out of hair-dye on the day that he is supposed to register for
classes, the officials at Yale send him away believing that he is a
fifty-year-old lunatic.
Several years later, while attending a party with his father (who now
looks to be the same age as Benjamin), Benjamin meets the young
Hildegarde Moncrief, the daughter of a respected Civil War general.
Hildegarde tells Benjamin that she would rather be with an older man
because they treat women better. He dances with her, and they quickly
fall in love and marry. Benjamin soon takes over his father's hardware
business, and he proves to be highly adept at the job, while growing
fabulously rich.
As Benjamin "grows younger," he begins to feel healthier and happier,
as Fitzgerald says, "the blood flowed with new vigour through his
veins." However, his wife ceases to attract him as she ages, and he
soon decides to fight in the Spanish-American War. He serves with
great distinction and receives a medal for a wound he received at the
Battle of San Juan Hill. When he returns home his relationship with
his wife deteriorates further, and he becomes more detached from her.
He often leaves the house and goes to lavish parties and dances, while
his wife is more settled in her ways.
In 1910 Benjamin turns over control of his company to his son, Roscoe,
and enrolls at Harvard, with the appearance of a 20-year-old. His
first year at Harvard is a great success, and he dominates on the
football field. However, by the time Benjamin reaches his senior year
he is a frail sixteen-year-old too weak to play football and barely
able to cope with the academic load.
Benjamin returns home, and as the years progress he goes from being a
moody teenager to being a young boy and is reluctantly cared for by
his son. Eventually, he looks to be the same age as his own grandson,
and even attends kindergarten with him. As his body grows younger,
Button slowly begins to lose his memory of his earlier life. The toys
and games that he spurned as a newborn begin to interest him. As he
reaches the end of his life he becomes a baby, and his nurse Nana
takes him for walks and teaches him to say words. His memory
deteriorates to the point where he can't remember anything except the
immediate present, and eventually, all goes dark