Customer Reviews

Big Time [VHS]

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am tired of the blank looks I receive when asking about this video. I think we all are. How can we get together and petition the dvd/video release of this wonderful performance? Who is in charge here? I count myself lucky to have viewed it once. It seems rather hateful to withold from new Tom Waits fans, much less those of us who can't get enough.

There are 3 concert films in the 80s which come to mind as being "great": "Stop Making Sense"(Talking Heads), "Home of the Brave"(Laurie Anderson) and "Big Time".

There have been different eras in Tom's career, the folk troubadour, the "barfly" jazz lounge singer, and later on a oft-namedropped singer-songwriter who plays "weird" instruments, at this time (1988) he was wrapping up a "trilogy" of Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs, and Frank's Wild Years, which was a play in Chicago by Gary Sinese's Steppenwolf theater group. However, this isn't "Frank's Wild Years", even though it's divided into different parts. It's "Big Time", an entity unto itself..

Like "Stop Making Sense", the director has you up close to Tom and the band, keeping the viewer's attention fixed on Tom and his actions. You know the audience is there, but you don't see much of them. A lot of times, you are moving out of the live footage into different scenarios used mostly in between the songs (the doorman, the ticket taker, etc), making you realize that this is a movie more than a concert film at times.

I haven't watched the film in a while (less than a year), but I remember the CD has different songs than the film does, and have gotten confused about what wound up in the film. But I do remember "Ruby's Arms" and "Red Shoes" being the only "old" songs on either.

Disappointments are only that a DVD hasn't been released of the film, although there have been film showings of "Big Time" in the San Fran area. The CD has a clean, crisp, sharp sound to it, and the VHS is (from what I can tell) mono and hissy, and the VHS cover (the movie poster and CD cover are better) is very 80s and garish. If they make a DVD, hopefully there's some home movie footage of how they put it together. It definitely warrants a commentary by the director and Tom. It should also include the Island-era music videos as an "extra" (there's about 8-10, at most) and hopefully there are more live clips to sate the appetite of Raindogs everywhere. It was a great era for Tom to reinvent himself as a true original, and one that should be available to people who are just beginning to discover him, as long as those who have been long time fans. It's an essential for new and old Waits fans.

It's "time" is long overdue for a proper DVD release (hopefully they can do a limited screening in theaters through the country)... It's been "way down in the hole" for too long. Don't let "strange weather" hold you back from
picking up the CD, either.

Long time Tom Waits fan am I, grieving because this masterwork of his melodic chaos and onstage genius isn't on DVD. THIS IS A VOID that must be filled. The soundtrack CD doesn't have all the songs from the movie, and is but a fishnet tease.

...that's what I want to know. I am one of the fortunate few to have this masterpiece on VHS, but that is an imperfect medium.
throwing my vote into the ballot box for release on DVD. this is a beautiful movie. if anyone ever doubts the genius of Tom Waits, put this on, sit back & hold on....

I have to say that when I went to see this movie, I was unsure of what to expect. I knew nothing of Tom Waits, except that he was the favorite musician of a friend of mine. I was terrified that I would be bored to sleep, but I went with a forced open mind. This movie floored me!!! It was absolutely thrilling. I became a big fan about 15 minutes into the movie....he has tapped into a universal human understanding. He is an amazing character that weird doesn't even begin to describe, and I don't think that anyone else could get away with his performances without looking seriously stupid. All that said, he is simply AMAZING!!!

I searched for this video for more than 5 years and finally found it in, of all places, a truck stop. I perusaded the clerk to sell me the used video for $5.

It is a great concert film. One of my favorite songs from the movie is Srange Weather. The look of the film is straight 80's. Lots of neon and bright colors.

Not only was Tom great at singing, but his sense of humor shined through as he told funny stories between songs. The musicians were in great form as well. His music is sort of like New Orleans jazz performed by pirates.

I know this is hard to find and seeminly expensive, but if you're a fan, you need to see this movie.

Having seen the great performance of Waits in Florence, I started to see if some videos were available. In my town Macerata I was very lucky to find Big Time, in a record shop, and only because the shop director didn't remember to send away the only copies he had. What can I say? Seeing Waits live is an incredible experience and an important event, but I think that also this video can explain, with less emotion, the artistic view of one of the most important musician of the last 25 years

This is a beautiful film, filled with beatnik dreams of Berlin decadence a la Kurt Weil, meets NYC underground rock. The concert music, is still available, as BIG TIME the CD. Yet, only with this film, do we see the very well developed dramatic and emphatic performer that WAITS is. What amazes me, is that a movie like the MONKEE's HEAD can be available, and this film not. I would hope, in a better world, that this appears on DVD, for those few people out there, that have taste left in their brains.Maybe Waits will do another concert film, if he ever tours again.

[...] Best 35 bucks I'll spend in my entire life. If you consider yourself a Tom Waits fan, you owe it to yourself to find this. Even if it means divorcing your wife, abandoning your family, quitting your job, climbing into the belly of whale to fight a posse of enchanted ninjas with nothing but a can of clam chowder (I'm emblishing a bit here, but you get my point), do it, do it, do it, do it. Best concert film ever recorded, I tell you! I find myself watching it just as frequently as I would listen to a CD, which has ended up being once or twice a day, with a few hiatuses, but the past two years. Creepy? Maybe. But still a damn good flick.

This is out on DVD although very hard to find i got mine from Ebay Germany as i think it was only released there, not sure. The dvd is released by Island Visual Arts. (it says on the cover manufactured and sold and distributed in the UK by Polygram video Ltd) but still impossible to find here.
Hope this helps - GOOD LUCK