Ridley Scott's unrelenting pitch into the confounding hell of contemporary urban warfare is an unlikely production from billions-grossing producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Encased in a dark blue suit with a natty tie, the 56-year-old mogul is a small, nut-tan man with spruce, precise four-day stubble. Alternating between practiced patter and slow, quiet answers to questions he doesn't seem to like, Bruckheimer pitches the substantial virtues of "Black Hawk" with calm intensity.

Mark Bowden's nonfiction "Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War" is a comprehensive, engrossing account of the events that took place in 1993 in Mogadishu, Somalia, as part of a U. N. peacekeeping mission. Two Black Hawk helicopters were downed, and to rescue the men inside, Army Rangers and Delta Force soldiers fought side by side for eighteen hours. There's little plot, hardly any set-up: Scott's daring is to have made a film that is almost experimental, a formalist barrage of imaginative mayhem that takes the breath away and doesn't offer it back until very near the end of its 134 minutes.

So here's a movie without romance. Two women: one woman answers a phone. Another gets shot dead when she picks up a gun on the street. It's not sentimental. Why is this a Jerry Bruckheimer film? "I read the book. I thought it was an event we should remember. We should remember the lives of the dead kids, the kids that died—" he quickly ticks off a list, "their bravery, their courage, their commitment. I just think it should be remembered in our zeitgeist, and the way you do that is make a movie that the whole world sees. I like to make pictures about people who make a difference."

Does "Black Hawk Down" make more sense in today's world, I wonder, than when it went into production? "It's hard to say. You'd be a better judge of that than me. I wouldn't have made the picture had I not thought that the public could handle this. But September 11 changed everything. I think it's more interesting now because what you watch on CNN is a journalist standing with a mic and behind them, there's a puff of smoke. You have no idea how that puff of smoke happened." He shifts into even higher gear. "This is the first look at modern warfare. You've seen films about Vietnam, you've seen films about World War II, you've never seen how Special Forces operate. And I've made a career of taking you inside, uh, certain situations, careers of people you and I will never be part of and show you how it actually works. Not Hollywood-ize it, y'know, make it real." Another gear he knows is "always be closing": "Last week, we had a number one television show based on what we call process, it's called 'CSI,' how these crime scene investigators actually operate, y'know, the technology that they have and how they solve crimes. So... I think people are fascinated by professions and things that give you real insight into it instead of something that's made up."

Speaking of made up, I wondered how this compared to "Pearl Harbor" and "Top Gun" in his career of portraying martial bliss. "Well, 'Pearl Harbor' is an actual event, but it wasn't documented by any one individual at the time. We tried to stay as close to a novel, not a novel, but a piece of journalism that Mark Bowden wrote. That's the key difference. We had a book this is based on. The others are purely the imagination of our screenwriters. This is based on Mark's insight and verbiage from the soldiers. The romance in "Pearl Harbor," of course, is made up. Y'know, 'Top Gun' is purely fictional.

Had there been enough time to figure out the virulence of the criticism of "Pearl Harbor"'s mediocrity? "If I could figure that out, I'd get good reviews on every picture. You try to please both [critics and audiences], but you can't," he says with smooth weariness. "If I had gotten a bunch of fantastic reviews and the film didn't work at the box office, you wouldn't be sitting here talking. I wouldn't be making movies. I'd have a lot of framed reviews, but I couldn't get movies made. What you have to do when you make pictures that are very expensive, you have to make sure you make your money back." Always ready with a figure, he adds, "'Pearl Harbor''s DVD is the largest-selling DVD in one week ever, it did $130 million in one week."

With today's immense budgets, a producer might make a "Remember the Titans," but I wonder-do the profits of loud entertainment like "Con Air" make them possible, or a "Flashdance" retread like "Coyote Ugly"? "Yeeeeah," he drawls, shooting me a stare I wouldn't want to see again, "I love all kinds of entertainment. When I go to movies, I don't just pick one niche. I saw 'The Royal Tenenbaums' last night, and Jerry Bruckheimer's not gonna produce that. And I loved it. I think there's a diversity in our tastes in the stuff we make. We do big entertainment like "Armageddon.' We try to do both-little movies that have some impact on society, and then give you the big entertainment movies like 'The Rock.'" He pauses. I earn the look again. "'Coyote Ugly' is about young girls and their dreams and realizing their dreams. A fun picture to make." He smiles, daring me to ask another.

"Black Hawk Down" explodes Friday.

Also by Ray Pride

LISTING CRAFT
Year-end top ten lists are forgettable. Ask for my list from 2000 or 1999, I'll only shrug. I remember the pictures. I tend to recall moments of empathy and tenderness, movies that celebrate simple or extravagant beauty. But, for this moment: ten instances of ten instances of lyrical, even delirious beauty.
(2002-01-10)

FICTION REVIEW
One of the best of lesser-known European writers in translation, Cees Nooteboom excels at conveying a thoughtful, urbane European sensibility. The 68-year-old Dutchman's 1998 "All Souls Day," newly translated by Susan Massotty, boasts an even cleaner version of his plaintive prose than in earlier novels like "Rituals" and "The Following Story."
(2002-01-10)

VALET SPARKING
The sulky manner of the 36-year old veteran of British television, "Croupier" and short films produced by BMW for the Internet, has made enough of an impression that he's been rumored a candidate for the next James Bond. "There's been an awful lot of that in the British press," he laughs, tapping his cigarette ash, "but that's probably just a combination of 'Croupier' and spending a lot of time in a tuxedo. And racing around in BMWs!"
(2002-01-03)

GOOD GRIEF
Todd Field's first feature as a director, aided tremendously by the clear-eyed images of cinematographer Antonio Calvache, is a drama, and good, proper drama demonstrates to us the particulars of life's hard choices, ones that we hope we can confront effectively, or certainly more effectively than our seconds on screen.
(2002-01-03)

MANNERISM
(2001-12-27)

LOVED-IN SPACES
(2001-12-20)

MINDFUCK
(2001-12-13)

FRENCH TICKLER
(2001-11-01)

LOVE AS A FOREIGN LAND
(2001-10-25)

TOYING WITH BOYS
(2001-10-18)

TWENTIETH-CENTURY FIX
(2001-10-18)

WHEN WE'RE ALONE
(2001-10-04)