Paul McCartney and filmmaker Morgan Neville appeared before a sold-out audience on April 20 at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Providence for a screening of “Man on the Run,” followed by a conversation moderated by Brown University President Christina H. Paxson.
The event drew nearly 2,000 members of the university community, highlighting continued interest in McCartney’s life after the Beatles and his process of personal and professional reinvention. The documentary focuses on the formation and rise of Wings, McCartney’s band with Linda McCartney, offering an intimate look at his journey beyond one of music’s most famous groups.
Neville said he approached making the film by first constructing a soundtrack from McCartney’s post-Beatles songs to guide its narrative arc. “The great thing about making a film about a songwriter is their songs,” Neville said. “The songs tell you that they need to be there, because he’s narrating some part of his life through them.”
McCartney acknowledged that watching this period depicted on screen was sometimes uncomfortable. “There were bits of it that got embarrassing, where I thought, maybe we should take those out, because I’m going to be sitting there squirming like I was tonight,” he said.
The documentary also addresses challenging moments in McCartney’s career after the Beatles’ breakup in 1970—times marked by public scrutiny and personal uncertainty. Despite setbacks such as commercial flops or an international arrest, McCartney emphasized finding stability with his family during years spent in rural Scotland. He described seeing footage of Linda McCartney as both difficult and uplifting: “You know, we’ve lost people in this film, particularly Linda… so it was very hard — and at the same time glorious — to see her and to see her humor.”
A section of “Man on the Run” explores McCartney’s relationship with John Lennon beyond rivalry narratives. “Particularly with John, it was such a battle for so many moments,” McCartney said. “But in the end [Neville] — very sweetly… put in the fact that we really loved each other.” Contributions from Sean Ono Lennon added further perspective: “It was great to hear him speak so lovingly of me and his dad… even though he never saw us together much, he sensed the truth.”
Looking ahead, both Neville and McCartney spoke about what motivates creative work over decades-long careers. Neville pointed to curiosity as key for artists; for McCartney himself it’s enjoyment: “If I didn’t do it as a job, I would do it as a hobby… There’s something magical in any art form about discovering ‘that thing’… it never gets boring.”
