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Never a Beatles fan during their heyday but still of the belief that Paul McCartney’s Ram is a straightup masterpiece, I was looking forward to the new documentary on Prime, Man on the Run.
It’s an intimate, heartfelt portrait of one of pop music’s most enduring figures navigating life after The Beatles.
Directed by Oscar-winner Morgan Neville (his 2014 20 Feet from Stardom won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature), the film covers McCartney’s creative and personal journey from the Beatles’ breakup in 1970 through the rise and eventual dissolution of his band Wings and beyond.
What sets Man on the Run apart from many music documentaries is its willingness to show vulnerability. Rather than just lionizing McCartney’s achievements, it lets him speak candidly about self-doubt, critical backlash to early solo work and the emotional fallout of reinventing himself as an artist.
Rare home movies, personal photos and archival footage — which includes McCartney’s own farm life moments and candid family interactions — give the film a deeply personal feel.
The documentary doesn’t shy away from the complications of McCartney’s post-Beatles era. We see the creative tensions with former bandmate Lennon and McCartney’s own reflections on being unfairly blamed for the Beatles’ collapse.
It culminates emotionally with his recounting of Lennon’s death, which brings home the cost of carrying both loss and legacy through a lifetime.
McCartney admits there was never anyone around to say no to his ideas, even when they were bad. To illustrate this, there are some truly bizarre scenes from a 1973 television show he agreed to do to settle a contract dispute.
Man on the Run may not reshape the McCartney mythos, but it succeeds on its own terms: a thoughtful, emotionally rich look at one man’s effort to forge a new life from the shadow of legend.
It’s less about nostalgia and more about resilience.
Though they tell the same story, there supposedly is no connection between the new documentary and the 2013 book by Tom Doyle called Man on the Run: Paul McCartney in the 1970s. The doc should, however, help increase sales for McCartney’s book Wings: The Story of a Band On the Run, released last November in conjunction with a Wings box set.
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