`44 MINUTES' OF TERROR FX MOVIE RE-CREATES HORROR OF GUNBATTLE.

Byline: Valerie Kuklenski Staff Writer

The North Hollywood bank robbery of Feb. 28, 1997, could not have made a better movie outline had it sprung entirely from a screenwriter's imagination.

It had bad guys dressed in black, innocents in danger, one of the fiercest urban gunbattles in American history, heroes risking their lives in daring rescues. And a victory for the good guys at the end.

That's not to say that the FX original movie ``44 Minutes,'' premiering at 8 p.m. Sunday, wrote itself (credit Tim Metcalfe), nor that it is entirely factual.

But it captures the extreme danger and the courage displayed by those on the scene, according to the Los Angeles Police Department officers who lived through it and watched the film.

``I got all tense; I got sweaty again,'' said former LAPD Detective Tom Gattegno, who spent months investigating the case. ``There is that Hollywood essence to it, but it is a docudrama, and it's not meant to be exact in every detail. But it captured everything that needed to be captured.''

FX held a screening Tuesday evening at the Police Academy, where Chief William Bratton and ex-Chief Daryl F. Gates mingled with stars Michael Madsen and Mario Van Peebles and some 75 officers who answered the North Hollywood call.

Mary Grady, public information director for the LAPD who was on the scene that day as a KCBS (Channel 2) reporter, said it was hard to watch the film.

``But it was almost kind of a healing process in a way because it made me see everything that happened. Now I have a clearer picture of what went down that day.''

The title ``44 Minutes'' refers to the time elapsed from the first 911 call at 9:15 a.m. reporting two men with ski masks entering the Bank of America, to the point when one gunman was dead and the other prone on a nearby street with 29 bullet wounds in his limbs.

Twelve officers and eight bystanders were injured that day. The only fatalities were the robbers.

Producer Daniel Schneider said he budgeted for 21,000 rounds of ammunition for ``44 Minutes'' and used 50,000.

``It was frightening, even knowing they were blanks.'' he said.

Filming at the actual bank branch was not an option, Schneider said, because he could not close off that block of Laurel Canyon Boulevard for a three-week shoot. But he did take his cameras to Archwood Street, where Larry Phillips Jr. shot himself on live television and Emil Matasareanu commandeered a Jeep and finished the fight.

``We had location managers and assistants who went out and delivered letters to (the Archwood residents) about what we were planning on doing so they could contact us,'' Schneider said.

The crew used some of the Archwood homes for yard scenes or interior settings, such as the officers' bedrooms.

``We involved the neighborhood,'' he said. ``We invited them to lunch. We had them come out and watch. It helped a lot.''

Most of the scenes were shot in a La Habra shopping center, with 15 days' work spent on the gunplay outside the bank.

Schneider said there were two prop people and two armorers charged with keeping all the weapons properly stored, handled and loaded. Costume designer Marilyn Matthews had her first experience working with the bulletproof material Kevlar, and the entire crew grew accustomed to working with earplugs.

Thirty people worked on special effects, rigging actors, cars, windows and walls to show the impacts of ``bullets'' hitting home.

``When we show a bullet hitting a car, there's a blank that comes out of the gun and then there's a charge on the car, so they have to drill a hole in the car, put the charge in it, patch it and then have the whole car painted,'' Schneider explained. ``And each bullet hit is a separate charge. Each one of those costs $10. AK-47 bullets are $1.10 apiece.''

Retired SWAT Officer Donnie Anderson, one of three Medal of Valor recipients credited with taking out the robbers, was a technical consultant on the film. He said watching the filming of the gunbattle got his adrenaline pumping.

``It was exciting. The director and producers went to the far extremes to make it right, to make it look real, especially the shooting,'' Anderson said.

``I don't really think they did have to heighten (the drama) much. There was a lot of drama out there that day. I thought they did a very good job.''

After the screening, Bratton thanked FX ``for showing in a very realistic way the terror that unfortunately sometimes men and women of this department face.''

``This is a film that I think we will long cherish in the LAPD in that it does depict what is the best of this department - the caring, the bravery, the courage,'' Bratton said.

CAPTION(S):

8 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 4 -- color) Oleg Takatarov plays Emil Matasareanu and Andrew Bryniarski is Larry Phillips Jr., above right, in ``44 Minutes,'' FX's movie about the 1997 North Hollywood bank shootout. At left, from top, scenes from the real shootout: Phillips leveling an assault rifle; a man taking cover, praying; and Matasareanu's body lying in the street after the gunbattle.

Fox Television Studios

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer

(5 -- color) Los Angeles Police Department officers mass outside the North Hollywood bank before moving in to battle the armed suspects.

(6 -- color) Actors Oleg Takatarov, left, and Andrew Bryniarski, who play the bank robbers in the FX film, sign autographs.

(7 -- 8 -- color) Actor Mario Van Peebles, left, plays LAPD Officer Henry Dee. Right, the Daily News' front page the day after the shootout.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News