The Times’s longtime literary critic says that like all great outlaw-heroes, the escaped Eurasian eagle-owl tapped into our desire to see an underdog claim his freedom.
“The Ballad of Flaco” began with a tear in the fence of a small Central Park Zoo enclosure the size of a bathroom, and then, after nearly 13 years in captivity, in the memorable words of the late-night host Seth Meyers, “Flaco shawshanked out of that cage.”As Flaco embraced his new freedom, New Yorkers marveled at the ability of this bird — whose entire existence had been scripted since he hatched at an avian breeding center in 2010 — to achieve that very American feat of writing a second act to his life.
Flaco’s jailbreak and new life on the lam cast him in the role of outlaw — a beloved figure in American movies from “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” to “The Fugitive” and “The Shawshank Redemption.”
Persons:
Flaco ”, Seth Meyers, “ Flaco, Flaco, —, Flaco’s, Butch Cassidy, ”
Organizations:
Sundance