“Man On The Run” documentary screened at the St. Louis International Film Festival

In February 2023, “Man On The Run,” a new documentary directed by Morgan Neville and focusing on Paul McCartney’s life and career during the 1970s, was officially announced.

The film premiered on August 30, 2025, at the Telluride Film Festival. It was also presented at the Nashville Film Festival on September 18, and at the New Orleans Film Festival on October 28.

On this day, “Man On The Run” was screened at the St. Louis International Film Festival.

From Man on the Run – SLIFF 2025:

Documenting Paul McCartney’s extraordinary life following the breakup of The Beatles and how the love he shared with Linda became his bedrock and influenced a journey that would lead to the formation of Wings and a second decade’s musical catalog of timeless classics. Based on access to never-before-seen archives of Paul and Linda’s home videos and photos, as well as new interviews.

My thoughts on the Man on the Run documentary is that it is a solid overview of Paul McCartney’s musical career in the 1970’s. Each member of Wings (sans Jimmy, not sure why they couldn’t have included archival interviews of Jimmy talking about how he joined Wings and his thoughts on the WOA tour during that time period) has their voice heard throughout the documentary which was great to hear their perspectives of events during their time with the band. It was also lovely to hear Mary and Stella interviewed throughout along with Mick Jagger, Chrissie Hynde, Sean Lennon, Aubrey Powell and John Hammel just to name a few.

The highlights for me footage wise were new albeit brief, footage of Wings on the Fair Carol recording London Town (some nice upclose footage of Jimmy and the band setting up posing on the Fair Carol for Henry Diltz), the Speed of Sound recording session pictures, some Wings Over The World footage along with home footage from Paul’s farm on the Mull of Kintyre that was mostly new to me along with Linda’s incredible photography throughout the documentary. An excerpt of Arrow Through Me from the Kampuchea concert is shown as well which was new to me. The James Paul McCartney Show and Bruce McMouse get mentioned which was neat. Seeing Paul’s letter to Allen Klein where Paul started off the letter with Dear Pig was hilarious and showed Paul’s absolute disdain for Klein.

My cons are that it needed more representation from Jimmy, obviously, and that not every album was shown or represented (no Red Rose Speedway mention, although My Love was played, nothing about how Henry created the solo, no Venus and Mars, Speed of Sound (minus the recording session pics set to the demo of Silly Love Songs and the Rockshow performance and no London Town except for the creation/recording of Mull of Kintyre, Fair Carol footage and Morse Moose overdubs footage, Wings’ trip to Nashville wasn’t featured either nor was Juniors Farm. But again, Man on the Run is aimed at the more casual Paul McCartney fan and not a diehard Paul McCartney and Wings fan, like myself.

All in all, I think it is a good and must watch for any fan of Paul and Wings. It gives a much more balanced overview of the band than Wingspan did so that’s a plus too.

Paul Salley – Author of “Little Wing: The Jimmy McCulloch Story“, 2021 – Thoughts shared on Facebook