Every Film and Documentary About Paul McCartney

Sixty Years of Paul on Screen

Paul McCartney has been on film since A Hard Day's Night in July 1964, and the list of films and documentaries built around him now runs from the Beatles' feature films through his own 1984 movie Give My Regards to Broad Street to Morgan Neville's Man on the Run, released in cinemas on 19 February 2026 and on Prime Video on 27 February 2026. This guide covers the major ones, in order, with a note on what each is actually worth your time for.

We have focused on films where Paul is central or where he took part, rather than every concert DVD or TV special. Streaming rights move around, so the platforms named here are where each title premiered or is currently licensed as of September 2026; physical releases on DVD and Blu-ray are the safer long-term option, and several have been restored in the last decade.

The Beatles Films, 1964 to 1970

A Hard Day's Night (1964), directed by Richard Lester, is the Beatles film most critics rank highest. Shot in black and white in March and April 1964 and premiered in London on 6 July, it turned the Beatles' real lives into a fast, funny, semi-documentary comedy. The Criterion Collection's 2014 restoration is the edition to own. Help! (1965), again directed by Lester, is in colour, bigger, sillier and less focused, but has great musical sequences.

Magical Mystery Tour, largely Paul's project, was broadcast by the BBC on Boxing Day 1967 and was savaged by critics, partly because BBC1 showed it in black and white when it was designed for colour. It is now far better appreciated, helped by a 2012 restoration shown on BBC Two and released on DVD and Blu-ray, and the 'I Am the Walrus' and 'Fool on the Hill' sequences are genuine pop art. Yellow Submarine (1968) is animated, with the Beatles' voices performed by actors, and the real band appearing only in a short live-action scene at the end.

Let It Be (1970), directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, documented the January 1969 sessions and the rooftop concert. The Beatles won the Academy Award for Best Original Song Score for it, but for decades the film was hard to see officially. That changed on 8 May 2024, when a restored version premiered on Disney+.

Wings, Broad Street and the Concert Films

Rockshow (released 1980) is the essential Wings film, a concert movie drawn from the 1976 Wings Over America tour, mainly the Seattle Kingdome show of 10 June 1976. A restored version was released on DVD and Blu-ray in 2013. If you only know Wings from the hits, this is the fastest way to understand what a strong live band they were.

Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984), written by Paul and directed by Peter Webb, opened in October 1984 and was a box office and critical failure. The plot, about missing master tapes, is thin. But it features re-recordings of Beatles songs, the single 'No More Lonely Nights' and Ringo, and fans have grown fond of it. Watch it for the music, not the story.

Get Back (1991), directed by Richard Lester, is a concert film from the 1989 to 1990 world tour, when Paul first played Beatles songs in large numbers on stage. Later concert films include Paul McCartney in Red Square (2005), covering his 2003 Moscow show, The Space Within US (2006) and Good Evening New York City (2009), filmed at the first concerts held at Citi Field in July 2009.

Paul as Film Composer and Screen Guest

Paul's film work is not only about being filmed. In 1966 he composed the score for The Family Way, a British comedy-drama starring Hayley Mills, with George Martin arranging and producing the music. It was one of the first solo projects by any Beatle and is a gentle, pastoral piece of writing that collectors still seek out on its original soundtrack LP.

In 1973 came 'Live and Let Die', the title song for Roger Moore's first James Bond film, produced by George Martin and performed by Paul McCartney and Wings. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song and is still the pyrotechnic high point of his concerts. In 1985 he wrote and recorded the title song for the comedy Spies Like Us.

He has also turned up as an actor in unexpected places, most famously with a cameo as Uncle Jack, Captain Jack Sparrow's uncle, in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017). His June 2018 Carpool Karaoke segment with James Corden took him back to Liverpool, into his childhood home at 20 Forthlin Road and on to a surprise set at the Philharmonic pub, and it works as a short film in its own right.

The Key Documentaries: Wingspan to The Love We Make

Wingspan (2001), directed by Alistair Donald, Paul's son-in-law at the time, tells the Wings story through Mary McCartney's interviews with her father and a large archive of family film. It is warm and personal, and it made many viewers take Wings more seriously.

The Beatles Anthology, first broadcast in 1995, remains the definitive Beatles documentary, told by Paul, George and Ringo with archive interviews of John. It was expanded and restored as Anthology 2025, released on Disney+ from 26 to 28 November 2025, with a new ninth episode about the making of the Anthology itself in 1994 and 1995.

The Love We Make (2011), by Albert Maysles and Bradley Kaplan, follows Paul through New York in the weeks after 11 September 2001 as he organised the Concert for New York City, held on 20 October 2001. It is quiet, observational and one of the most revealing portraits of Paul as a person rather than a performer.

The Recent Era: Eight Days a Week to Man on the Run

The Beatles: Eight Days a Week, The Touring Years (2016), directed by Ron Howard, covers the band's touring life from 1962 to 1966 with superb restored concert footage. McCartney 3,2,1, a six-part series directed by Zachary Heinzerling, premiered on Hulu on 16 July 2021. It is simply Paul and producer Rick Rubin at a mixing desk, pulling apart Beatles and solo tracks, and it is a joy for anyone who cares about how records are made.

The Beatles: Get Back, Peter Jackson's three-part series released on Disney+ in November 2021, restored around 60 hours of film from January 1969 and changed the story of the Beatles' last year. Instead of a miserable break-up, it shows four friends working hard and laughing, with 'Get Back' taking shape in front of the cameras. If These Walls Could Sing (2022), directed by Mary McCartney, tells the history of Abbey Road Studios and premiered on Disney+ on 16 December 2022. Beatles '64, directed by David Tedeschi and produced by Martin Scorsese, followed on Disney+ on 29 November 2024, covering the band's first US visit.

Man on the Run, directed by Morgan Neville with Paul as an executive producer, covers his life after the Beatles and the Wings years, with previously unseen archive material. It premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on 30 August 2025, had a short cinema run on 19 and 22 February 2026 with an extra 12-minute conversation between Paul and Neville, and arrived on Prime Video on 27 February 2026. Our review of the Man on the Run soundtrack covers the accompanying album.

What Is Coming: The Sam Mendes Films

The next big screen event is fiction, not documentary. Sam Mendes is making four feature films, one from the point of view of each Beatle, with Paul Mescal playing Paul, Harris Dickinson as John, Joseph Quinn as George and Barry Keoghan as Ringo. Saoirse Ronan plays Linda and Anna Sawai plays Yoko Ono. Sony Pictures plans to release all four in April 2028, and they are the first scripted films granted rights to the Beatles' life stories and recorded music. Our Sam Mendes Beatles films guide tracks the latest news.

If you want to build a proper home collection of these films, our roundup of the best Beatles documentaries compares the physical editions and streaming options, with notes on which releases have the best restorations and extras.