Tom Waits has always been one of the most eccentric and eclectic singer-songwriters in American popular music. With his croaking whisky voice and songs exploring the lives of the down-and-out, his music has never enjoyed wide commercial success, but it has earned him a cult following, multiple Grammy Awards and a second career as an actor in the films of Francis Ford Coppola and Jim Jarmusch (among others). So it's no surprise that Big Time (1988) defies the familiar conventions of the concert film. Described in the credits as "Un Operachi Romantico" in three acts, Big Time features Waits performing songs from the albums Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs and Frank's Wild Years at the Warfield in San Francisco and the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles in November 1987. The distinctive stage set, with colorful light boxes silhouetting the musicians, was designed by Kathleen Freeman, his wife and collaborator. There are no shots of the audience, and the songs are intercut with short vignettes featuring Waits playing a variety of offbeat characters, from a janitor to a lounge singer to a theater usher who may in fact be dreaming the entire experience. Reviews ran the gamut. Jon Parales, writing for The New York Times, complains that the film "turns Mr. Waits's performance into a freak show," while Time Out: London praised it as "a concert film unlike any other," orchestrated with "a fantastically energetic imagination." Big Time proved to be as theatrical, as singular and as polarizing as Waits' music.

By Sean Axmaker Sources:
"'Big Time,' a Look at the Rock Star Tom Waits," Jon Parales. The New York Times, September 30, 1988.
"Big Time," MC. Time Out: London, date unknown.
AFI Catalog of Feature Films
IMDb