Paul McCartney in Man on the Run

MAN ON THE RUN
Directed by Morgan Neville
Certificate: PG
☆☆☆☆☆

THEY may have split 56 years ago, two key members may be long dead, but The Beatles remain a lodestone in our nation’s cultural landscape.

The breaking up of The Beatles was, as one critic quoted in this documentary about Paul McCartney in the 1970s says, a landmark in the decline of the British Empire.

Director Morgan Neville has interviewed McCartney and his children, got Sean Lennon on the record, and accessed reams of home-shot films, photographs and archives to create an absorbing story of what you do after being part of the most famous band of the 20th century.

In Man On The Run, we learn how Paul came to terms with the ending of the Fab Four – he moved to a remote farm in Scotland, drank too much whisky, then got his head together and started making new music.

There is much here to savour. For the Beatle fan, the idea that John and Paul hated each other post break-up is happily put to bed: they never fell out of love, just needed to move on, do new things, and essentially grow up.

The access Neville enjoys alone makes this watchable: who doesn’t want to hear Mick Jagger express his admiration for Paul taking on a semi-abandoned cottage, saying he personally would not know where to begin fixing a roof – something we watch cine footage of Paul doing happily?

And there is also an honesty in this appraisal of the artist. How do you follow The Beatles? Lennon’s 1971 album Imagine won rave reviews, while McCartney’s output was more hit and miss, but here we understand why: he wanted quiet domesticity, to be with Linda and their children – hardly the basis for speaker-busting rock and roll.

But while his first solo album was considered a disappointment, once he had got Wings working, with The Moody Blues Denny Laine, things started to cook. Their album Band On The Run won critical acclaim and prompted a bumper worldwide tour.

This story focuses on the 1970s – we are spared the Frog Chorus or Pipes of Peace – and ends with Lennon’s murder. Perhaps that is when The Beatles story finally concluded. There is a tantalising what-if, when it is revealed they were offered $3,000 to play three songs on Saturday Night Live in 1977: John and Paul were hanging out at John’s New York apartment, and very nearly jumped in a cab to the studio and surprise the world.

Lennon and McCartney’s music has given half the planet perhaps more joy and sadness than any other.

This film feels very true to the down-to-earth Beatle whose ballads will never lose their flavour.