At 27 years old, McCartney basically disappeared from the public and retreated to his farmhouse in Scotland. He was a lost soul. Depressed and turning to alcohol, he and his wife Linda lived a natural life, even becoming vegetarian. The world wondered what happened to McCartney. Was he alive?

McCartney was definitely alive. He just needed time away to digest what had happened to him, where he was in his life and to figure out what he was going to do next.

In the beginning, McCartney was vilified for being the one who broke up the “fab four,” but in reality it was John Lennon who wanted to quit. Lennon and McCartney grew apart and they ended up each writing their own music, but they will always be known as Beatles.

For McCartney, writing songs was the “ultimate therapy,” he admits in this new film. He states that he was “on my own for the first time,” professionally. Now what was he going to do? His first solo album celebrated “ordinary life,” as he and his wife were content living their natural life with their kids.

The couple joined together professionally and started Wings, with her on keyboards and adding background vocals. The band started from scratch, or as McCartney says, at “square one.” Their first bus tour, “Wings over Europe,” included all the band members with their children. It was back to basics and a far cry from the way he traveled when he was a Beatle, but he loved it. Fans of McCartney will undoubtedly be surprised at just how basic the tour was and how the band started out.

Things were unfolding slowly until the hit “Band on the Run,” which McCartney describes as being all “about freedom.”

Then, another blow happened when half the band quit, leaving just McCartney, his wife and Denny Laine (who had formed The Moody Blues). They regrouped into a second version of Wings, and moved onto Wings over the World, then Wings over America tours. In 1979, 10 years after the breakup of the Beatles, Wings performed its last show. But McCartney was not out of the spotlight. Entering Japan, he was nabbed with marijuana and put in jail. “I was an idiot,” McCartney states.

McCartney and Lennon reunited, but not on stage. “One of the great blessings is that we made up,” he says. They decided to keep their friendship personal and not to appear onstage together again.

“Man on the Run” is an interesting look at how McCartney reinvented himself, professionally and personally, after the Beatles. It is rated R for language (and drugs). The film ran in theaters last week for a one-day global event. It became available for streaming on Prime Video beginning Friday. The film is a deep dive into the world of McCartney and will add insight into the man for fans of the Beatles, Wings and McCartney himself.