Tom Waits Documentary - Big Time (1988)

Released in 1988, Big Time is a concert documentary film capturing Tom Waits at the peak of his theatrical reinvention during the Frank’s Wild Years tour. Directed by Chris Blum and blending live performances at Los Angeles’ Wiltern Theatre and San Francisco’s Warfield with surreal cinematic vignettes, it showcases Waits’ gravel-voiced storytelling through songs like “16 Shells from a Thirty-Ought Six,” “Clap Hands,” “Rain Dogs,” and “Innocent When You Dream.” Intercut with backstage scenes, scripted monologues, and dreamlike sequences featuring Waits as a carnival barker, ticket taker, and lounge singer, the film presents an intimate, larger-than-life portrait of his distinctive blend of beat-poetry lyrics, junkyard jazz, and vaudeville performance art.