Reaching Back to the Classic Film Score: Interview with Joe Kraemer

Film composer Joe Kraemer isn't a household name to moviegoers and probably to some film music aficionados as well. Reading through his biographical notes and resume there are not many huge commercial successes, but it's impressive nonetheless to note the intensity and variety of his works: since 1997, he worked on more than 50 titles including short films, documentaries, television series and feature films of various kinds. The single title that someone probably remembers is The Way of the Gun (2000), a film by Christopher McQuarrie (Academy Award winner for the screenplay of The Usual Suspects) starring Benicio Del Toro, Juliette Lewis and James Caan.
Jack Reacher is the first big film in which Kraemer can finally show his considerable talent to the general audience. Based on a series of crime novels written by Lee Child, the film depicts the exploits of an atypical "problem-solver" named Jack Reacher (performed by a convincing Tom Cruise), a former major of U.S. Army Military Police Corps who finds himself - often reluctantly - involved in situations that requests his help to bring out unfortunate victims against vicious criminals and dangerous thugs. Director Christopher McQuarrie (who also wrote the script) packs a fast-paced film, full of witty dialogue and deft action sequences, openly referring to the style and tone of American action movies of the 1970s. Composer Joe Kraemer - whom McQuarrie wanted on board from the start - conceived a musical score that follows the same stylistic route, calling back to the tradition of classic film music by composers such as David Shire, Jerry Goldsmith, Lalo Schifrin and John Williams. The result is an impressive bold symphonic score, in which Kraemer shows remarkable dramatic instincts, especially for the ability to manage wisely the spotting of the music cues and the density of the orchestral writing. It is result far from obvious, especially considering the current state of Hollywood film music for this kind of films.
We talked to Joe Kraemer and about the genesis of this very nice film score surprise, as well as to find out more about his musical background, his sources of inspiration and his personal views on film music.

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