Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Remember John Lennon's posthumous official biographical film Imagine: John Lennon from 1988?  Well, Paul McCartney finally got around to completing his own bio in 2001, and much in the same way Lennon's was done.  The year 2001 gave McCartney a valid excuse to execute this TV documentary by citing the 30th anniversary of the formation of his second band Wings, hence the title.  I brought up Imagine: John Lennon because Wingspan was made in just about the same way as Lennon's video bio.  Imagine was narrated by Lennon over home movies, news clips and archive footage of The Beatles and his solo career.  The only difference here is that McCartney still lives and his narration is a current interview with his daughter Mary, along with archive audio interviews with Linda McCartney aiding in telling the story of the couple. 

Paul reminisces about he and Linda, so the story starts around 1967, the year the two had met.  As Paul is talking they use many of Linda's photographs of The Beatles to illustrate their history.  Paul met Linda in a club in London called Bag O' Nails, he was a Beatle at the time, and Linda was a rock photographer.   After a half-hour into this documentary, the story finally veers toward the subject of Wings, McCartney's band after The Beatles that he started with his wife.  Paul & Linda began singing together on a Beatles song, Let It Be in 1969, but she collaborated with Paul on his first solo album McCartney as a back-up singer, and then was even credited with songwriting alongside Paul on his Ram album in 1971.  So with this progression it was only natural that she becomes a part of his new band Wings, she would just need to learn how to play an instrument.  Paul taught her basic piano, and she provided keyboards for Wings. 

Wingspan included some awesome video from the band's early days including a newsreel from 1971 celebrating the launch of Wings as a band and their first album Wild Life.  The clip shows a party with special guests like Keith Moon, Elton John, Ronnie Wood and more.  Much like Lennon and Ono, the McCartney's filmed just about everything they did musically, around the house, on vacation which provides a great wealth of pictures and video to illustrate their history together.  From a fan's perspective - Wingspan has lots of very rare videos with fantastic quality to digest, but the story being told reveals nothing new.  For viewers who are not so familiar with the story of Paul and Linda, it makes it easy for them to understand and follow along. 

Myself, knowing the history and stories of The Beatles and Wings - it was interesting to see that Paul's idea for the beginnings of his new band stems from an idea he pitched to The Beatles at the time they were breaking up, as he desperately tried to keep the band together.  Paul suggested that The Beatles go on the road and play small clubs to get be reminded of the reasons why they started the band to begin with.  Of course, Lennon told McCartney to sod off, but with his new band - this was exactly was Wings did for about a year, just traveling and stopping at an occasional university and small venues and asking if they could play that night.  In books, years later Denny Laine would complain about the meager conditions that the band would travel, and why didn't McCartney spend a little more of his millions for his new band to travel with some style.  Yet, it was an itch that McCartney needed to scratch, and it must have done him some good, because after that horrible album debut, Wild Life, McCartney only delivered quality music for years after. 

The best part for me was the very rare film included here, from each and every part of their career and more.  From Paul & Linda singing to Paul's acoustic guitar on the farm in Scotland, to video of Wings playing these early gigs with the first version of Wings.  Only in books have I read about how Wings recorded their amazing 1978 release London Town on a yacht in the Virgin Islands, and now here there is footage of it which blows my mind.  They probably also would have had some video from Lagos where they recorded their 1973 breakthrough smash Band on the Run, but of course their cameras were stolen from them at knifepoint on that trip. 

The story ends of Wings ends in 1980, after McCartney's drug arrest in Japan.  With about 10 more minutes of this 90 minutes doc, the rest is dedicated to the memory of Linda who died of breast cancer in 1998.  It also shows Paul painting in his studio, one of the things he was promoting at the time of this TV documentary.

Basically, this was made in a way to please the fans, and ultimately it did that, but unfortunately with the death of George Harrison (guitarist of The Beatles, who also died of cancer in 2001), it overshadowed the Wingspan video and CD to the point that McCartney decided to put the promised Wings box set on hold.  Even though it was scheduled, he didn't want to be perceived of capitalizing on George's death.  Hopefully, one day this box set will see the light of day at some point in the future.

I recommend this DVD to any music fan, not just fans of The Beatles or Paul McCartney.  The Beatles history is so rich with drama, successes, tragedies, milestones, embarrassments, comedy, and above all - never without the best soundtracks available. 


Wingspan - An Intmate Portrait
Directed by: Alistair Donald
Starring: Paul McCartney, Mary McCartney, Linda McCartney, John Lennon, Denny Laine, George Harrison, Ringo Starr
Released: 05/11/2001
Rated: NR (talk of drug use)
Length: 88 minutes
Rating: 3 ½ stars

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day