Paul McCartney: Man on The Run, 2025.
Directed by Morgan Neville.
SYNOPSIS:
An intimate portrait of Paul McCartney’s trajectory after The Beatles, as he and his wife Linda form Wings.
The Beatles have had no shortage of films and TV shows made about them, with everyone from Ron Howard to Peter Jackson tackling various chapters of the Fab Four’s journey, and of course Sam Mendes’ four-part cinematic event to come. The post-Beatles days have been given less attention, although they still have their fair share, and Paul McCartney’s immediate post-Beatles years and his follow-up group Wings are now in the spotlight with Morgan Neville’s Man on the Run.
Younger viewers may know the tunes of this era and the particularly successful ‘Band on the Run’ period but some of the stories and perspectives have shifted over time. The film posits that McCartney was initially blamed for his first group’s break-up alongside his wife Linda. It was into this tumultuous era at the onset of the 1970s that McCartney began his journey without his fellow Beatles. The film follows his initial struggles to replicate the glory days and the mixed response to his early solo releases, many of which are now regarded as classics.
This is perhaps an era of his career that has had less attention than The Beatles but is equally worthy of celebrating and reappraising. Even if some of the stories are already common knowledge, there is a reflective, insightful tone to Neville’s film. It covers his first days as a solo artist, of course, skirting The Beatles days, to John Lennon’s assassination in 1980.
Ultimately, this will reinforce McCartney’s achievements on his own and his musicianship, playing multiple instruments on many projects and on several records all of them. Even if Wings never quite reached the dizzying heights of The Beatles (which bands have?), they were far from a flash in the pan.
Sections covering his relationship, both personal and musical, with Linda and quiet days living on a Scottish farm, show a more human side to McCartney. Positioning him as the main focus does give us an insight into his creative process away from Lennon. Rather than veering into talking heads and fan input, the focus is kept squarely on the man himself, with new and archive audio and footage painting a picture of where he was at the various stages depicted.
Neville shows why he has built such a formidable reputation as a documentary filmmaker and this is one of those rare beasts, a film on a Beatle that doesn’t feel unnecessary. It is reverential but offers some genuinely fresh insight that both longtime and casual fans can enjoy.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Chris Connor
