Man on the Run Movie Review

This is simply remarkable. If you haven’t seen other documentaries about McCartney, there are no others now. Just watch this. It covers everything… and it’s that good. ​

What you get from this film is that Paul McCartney, as he tells us at the very beginning of the picture, is a man who values peace, I’ll add to that, his family, above all. What you’ll get from watching this is that, since the Beatles and since marrying his wife, Linda, every decision he made has been with her and his four children in mind. You see in his face what’s important to him outside of peace. You hear it in his voice, read it in his scribbles, admire it in the sketches in a date book, bespeckling certain sections of this documentary. I hope you like them as much as I do. Family means so much, but so do you.

This mostly covers the Wings era; the movie is narrated by Paul as he’s being interviewed about the past and present. It’s hard not to hang onto his every word. Also interviewed are Paul’s brother Michael, author Peter Doggett, journalist Chris Welch of Melody Maker, friend and Lead Singer of The Pretenders, Chrissie Hynde, producer Chris Thomas, singer Nick Lowe (who was in the opening act for Wings), and creative director Aubrey Powell, among others. The director gets you into Paul’s headspace as a young artist. Paul and his brother stood on a riverbank and asked their dad what was on the other side. Their father replied, “That’s over the water.” Which meant it was unobtainable. That’ll get a young man’s imagination moving.

This is filled with old news clips, in b&w and in color, from the beginning of The Beatles; from when young women would lose their minds if they saw one of them, let alone all four together. That would be hard to deal with… as you see. They couldn’t even go to a restroom without being bothered. Journalists like to ask the girls questions as tears roll down their faces for no reason other than their proximity to the band. They also cried when the news that Paul had gotten married hit. This was devastating, even though when asked, one girl, crying her head off, said she thought the marriage was “Lovely.” However, later, the fans have a different outlook and think she’s controlling his decisions, as if the man doesn’t have a mind of his own. They just don’t like things he’s doing that make Linda out to be the bad guy.

Taking a look at how they behave is an intriguing part of the film, one I’m glad was covered, but getting into their manager, Allen Klein, who was taking his cut from the top and the bottom, really showed how things were no longer working. They weren’t listening to one another anymore. Lennon was pushing to have Klein become their manager because he could get better deals for the Beatles. Paul saw through him as just a lawyer who wanted to swallow their fortune. The others went with Lennon.  At this point in the film, Sean Lennon has nothing but kind words for Paul. A song on the new album was aimed directly at Paul, and not in pleasant ways. Pay close attention. Paul and John don’t have compassionate words for one another here. But Paul loved him and always would, no matter what. This is the common theme throughout and touches you until the very end. There was true love between them.

Life Magazine takes photos of Paul and his family at his Campbeltown, Scotland, farmhouse. The photos are marvelous, very intimate. He was depressed at the time. From the area comes the song “Mull of Kintyre,” a beautiful tune featuring extraordinary bagpipes. It was also the biggest-selling record ever in Scotland at the time. He and Linda had horses and sheep, and they grew their own vegetables. It was his place to be away from the world. He could write freely. He could be himself there. Mick Jagger, of the Rolling Stones, tells us, “He wanted to be grounded in ordinary life.” Linda raised the children on her own, as well. Her daughter later wonders how she did it all.

Paul mentions that “John was starting to write his own stuff. I was starting to write mine. We were just growing apart, really.” Chris Welch said of Paul that, “He had two great allies when he set off on his musical career. One, of course, was Linda, and the other was a blank sheet of paper.” Peter Doggett said that Paul, more or less, created Alternative Rock. The movie gets into what broke up the Beatles. It’s said that their breakup will one day be seen as “A decline in the British Empire,” and gives the official date of it happening, celebrating it for what Paul had moved on to. Wings. There were several iterations of the band; it was a successful venture.

The second creation was what he considered the best one. It produced some amazing works, something which he says he was extremely proud of. He didn’t have to be in the Beatles to thrive creatively. He wanted the audience to know that. He wanted the world to know that. Producer Chris Thomas talks about seeing Paul in Abbey Road one day. I’ll let you discover what happened there when you watch. His album “Ram” is brought up. The critics bashed it, but Sean Lennon loved it. He states that it wasn’t trying to be a Beatles album, saying that was “the charm of it.” He goes on to exclaim that “Ram is a masterpiece.” I had never actually heard of it and will have to give it a listen based on his love for it alone.

“Band on the Run” hit and was a big success. It topped the charts in the UK, US, and Australia in 1974, the same year that the Beatles’ breakup was finalized. There is a lot of time spent on Wings being on the road, how everyone was dealing with children being with them, and trying not to break the law. Mastering fame for him wasn’t easy. Paul ignored people telling him what not to do, such as bringing pot into Japan, which was a no-no. He almost ended up in a situation he couldn’t get out of. He got lucky. Now he questioned whether he should keep doing what he was doing or try another solo album.

Before it’s over, you see he proved he had what it took to make it without being a Beattle. His friend Chrissie Hynde said success doesn’t change a person and didn’t change him. “The world around you changes but I think the person pretty much stays the same.”

One night, Paul and John, sneaking onto SNL together, was brought up between them, as was the reason they didn’t do it. What a miss there. Paul was broken up when he heard of John’s death. He had a hard time processing the end of such a beautiful, long friendship. He says, “Time can take the edge off.” You’ll appreciate what Sean has to say again here. When in Wings, the members were always comparing themselves to the Beatles. The last three Wing members sing the song, “Please don’t take my sunshine away.” Who was that sunshine you can’t help but wonder to yourself? Imaginative computer graphics and original archival footage enhance this film, keeping you locked in for every song and every word, especially if you haven’t read any of the books at this point. Put “Man on the Run” in your must-see list.