Wings
Wingspan - Hits And History

THE REVIEW

I recently revisited part of the Beatles' "Anthology" and found it truly well-made. I bought it when I was practically a child and didn’t have much idea of how a documentary of that kind should be produced: hours and hours of video material held together by interviews and commentary.

Well, the work stops at 1970, and after that? That's what I wondered, what happened afterwards to Paul, John, Ringo, and George? To partially fill the gap, you can get biographies and various materials, but for McCartney, there is something more appealing and simple.
"Wingspan" is the documentary made by Mary McCartney in 2001 about the '70s years of her parents, involved in leading the flight of their "Wings." The film is technically different from the colossal Beatles work; here, the atmosphere is much more intimate and less "Fabulous". Mary interviews her father, who recounts much of his artistic life starting from 1967, from meeting Linda in a London club to the arrest in Japan in 1980. The choice to use unreleased material, like the photos taken by Linda, those of the Beatles in 1967 for "Sgt Pepper" never seen or the sessions of "Let It Be" in 1969, or even private ones that show a homey McCartney, is decidedly interesting and better conveys the subtitle of the film (an intimate portrait).

The entire journey is covered, the end of the group so beloved by fans, the images of young girls crying at Paul's wedding, the retreat in Scotland well-described by never-before-seen video images, with Paul as a horseman and farmer, up to the birth of "McCartney," the sessions in New York of "Ram," once again documented by an avalanche of photos.
McCartney is at ease, the scene is all his, and so he illustrates the technique used to record alone, shows fans the famous "Rude Studios" where "Wild Life" was recorded, illustrates the birth of the Wings, reveals the background on the band's name, the criteria with which he recruited the old friend Denny Laine, and then lots of music and never-before-seen footage, like the performance of "The Mess" from 1972, the university tour, the 1973 tour in support of "Red Rose Speedway."

As the decade progresses, the group's popularity grows, so here are the photo sessions for the "Band On The Run" cover, the 1976 world tour, the Caribbean of "London Town," and finally the arrest for possession of soft drugs in Japan in ‘80.
The film closes on the melancholic notes of "Junk," leaving fans with a precious documentary that in the extras adds tracks performed by McCartney in acoustic version like "Mrs. Vanderbilt" and "Picasso's Last Words."