Paul McCartney doc explores him 'trying to escape' Beatles shadow

Even if you think you know all there is about Paul McCartney, this new documentary will still throw you some surprises.

Paul McCartney’s second life began the day the Beatles broke up.

Then his life was forever altered again Dec. 8, 1980, when his musical soulmate John Lennon was murdered.

Those seismic events bookend “Man on the Run,” the gently probing documentary from acclaimed filmmaker Morgan 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’s need to expel songs from his brain remained robust.