Paul McCartney'ssecond life began the day the Beatles broke up.
Then his life was forever altered again Dec. 8, 1980, when his musical soulmateJohn Lennon was murdered.
Those seismic events bookend"Man on the Run,"the gently probing documentary from acclaimed filmmakerMorgan Neville("20 Feet From Stardom," "Keith Richards: Under the Influence") which streams on Prime Video Feb. 27.
"Think about how, in 1969, Paul marries Linda, he adopts a kid (her 6-year-old daughter Heather), he has a kid (Mary) and the Beatles break up. So kind of everything in his life changes. And I just thought as a filmmaker, that's a great place to begin," Neville said in a Q&A moderated by USA TODAY following a screening in New York. "Then I thought, where does the story end? With John dying. The journey of the 1970s for Paul in many ways is trying to escape the shadow of the Beatles, which is impossible. He's running away from this looming shadow, which is why I called the film 'Man on the Run.' And when John dies, it all stops."
The nearly two hour film centers on McCartney's retreat to a farm in Scotland in 1970 following the official split of perhaps the most consequential band in music history. The Beatles might have dissolved, but McCartney'sneed to expel songs from his brainremained robust.
His lo-fi solo debut, "McCartney" arrived in April 1970, the same month McCartney announced his Beatles retreat (Lennon had secretly departed the band months earlier).
As he struggled through depression and rare critical sniping toward his solo work, McCartney and Linda, depicted in home moviesas his ever-steady rockand champion,formed Wings. The band employed a rotating cast of drummers and guitarists during its near-decade of output and blossomed by 1973 with the landmark "Band on the Run" album. Wings dropped a trove of hits into pop music history ("My Love," "Live and Let Die," "Listen to What the Man Said," "Silly Love Songs" and "With a Little Luck" just a smattering).
"Man on the Run" includes new interviewswith McCartney, 83, as well as daughters Stella and Mary and Sean Ono Lennon. Linda McCartney, who died in 1998, and former Wings players also have a voice from archived interviews and home videos that McCartney, an executive producer of the documentary, freely gave access to Neville.
In a separate interview with USA TODAY, Neville expounded on earning McCartney's trust, the revelation that surprised him and learning McCartney's private reaction to Lennon's death.
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Question: We've seen a lot from Paul's life over the years. What was some of the 'I've struck gold' video that you found?
Morgan Neville: When he told me the story of almost drowning in Hawaii. He's never told that story before. Then I found the movie footage and it exactly illustrates what he's describing. Then all of that home video of him writing a song by himself or the family singing 'You Are My Sunshine.' All of that was new to find. As somebody who devoured all things Beatles, there's a lot of stuff in (the documentary) that hasn't been seen or heard.
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Did Paul steer you in any way to certain footage?
No. Paul basically had no direction for me – in a good way. Literally when I told him this is the kind of film I wanted to make, he said, 'OK. Sounds good.' The next time he talked about the film was when he watched the final cut.
Did he have any notes for you?
None. Yes, Paul is an executive producer, but this cut is 100% my film. I did not change a single thing for Paul. Part of that is I guess I built trust with him, but also when I talked to him about the film I just said, look, at times I'm getting very honest about things, but I think the struggles you have are actually incredibly relatable. I felt like it had worked when he said, I really want to show this to my entire family. And he did.
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The film delves into the vitriol that Linda experienced and the hatred she got from fans because she wasn't a musician (she learned to play keyboards in Wings). Imagine what that would have been like in today's world with social media.
Paul was coming out of the Beatles at that moment and he was one of themost famous humanson the planet. So every day in the paper there were things about them. That was a kind of fame at that point that was virtually unprecedented, maybe only also with Elvis. It was Linda's idea to move to Scotland. Paul had bought the house there as a tax dodge, and he didn't like it. He'd barely spent a night or two there and Linda said, we need to get away. Once he saw Scotland through her eyes, he said, OK, let's do it. As crazy as it seemed at the time, it actually was incredibly healing. What better way to stay grounded than to literally become a farmer?
I thought it was interesting that you chose not to show any of the interview subjects on camera, so we just hear their voices. Why did you choose that approach?
When you take everybody off camera, it becomes less of "old people looking back" and more present tense. It's like you're in the story as it's happening. Also, the archive was so strong. Fortunately, Paul married a photographer!
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And you added some animations throughout.
Those are all homemade, that kind of stop-motion animation. One of the artistic stories that decade for Paul is DIY. The music was handmade. Recording in your house or in your barn. Even the album covers, there were a bunch of things where Paul was embracing the lack of gloss.
One of the interviews is with John's son, Sean, who really explains Paul's reaction to John's death in public. When Paul told a news team, 'It's a drag, man,' people took his response to be exceptionally cold.
Sean's reaction is so loving and understanding and graceful that he understands that Paul's in shock. In the film, (daughter) Stella tells the story of Paul's real reaction when he gets the phone call (about John's murder), which I've never heard before. That's the private reaction … Paul obviously loved John deeply. All those moments where John would refer to Paul as his best friend or his brother, even when they were fighting, they had that kind of relationship. And the film really is these two love stories of Linda and Paul and Linda and John and Paul.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:New Paul McCartney film spans Beatles breakup, John Lennon death
