L.A. Confidential

Wife-beater: Who in the hell are you?! Wendell "Bud" White: Ghost of Christmas Past. Why don't you dance with a man for a change? Wife-beater: What are you, some kind of smart ass? Wendell "Bud" White: You'll be out in a year and a half. I'll get cozy with your parole officer. You touch her again, I'll have you violated on a kiddie raper beef. [grabs wife beater by the head] You know what they do to kiddie-rapers in Quentin.

L.A. Confidential (film), CC BY-SA 4.0

Capt. Dudley Smith: Would you be willing to plant corroborative evidence on a suspect you knew to be guilty, in order to ensure an indictment? Sgt. Ed Exley: Dudley, we've been over this. Capt. Dudley Smith: Yes or no, Edmund? Sgt. Ed Exley: No. Capt. Dudley Smith: Would you be willing to beat a confession out of a suspect you knew to be guilty? Sgt. Ed Exley: No. Capt. Dudley Smith: Would you be willing to shoot a hardened criminal in the back, in order to offset the chance that some...lawyer... Sgt. Ed Exley: No. Capt. Dudley Smith: Then, for the love of God, don't be a detective. Stick to assignments where you don't have to make those kinds of choices.

L.A. Confidential (film), CC BY-SA 4.0

Man: Everything all right, doll? Want me to get rid of him? Bud: Hit the road, pal. Man: [stepping closer] Maybe I will. Maybe I won't. Bud: [showing his badge] LAPD, shitbird. Get the fuck outta here or I'll call your wife to come get you. Man: [nods] Officer. Bud: [nods] Councilman.

L.A. Confidential (film), CC BY-SA 4.0

Lynn: Where'd this come from? Bud: When I was twelve, my old man went after my mother with a bottle. I got in the way. Lynn: So you saved her. Bud: Not for long. Lynn: I'm sorry, it's none of my business. Bud: He tied me to the radiator. I watched him beat my mother to death with a tire iron. And he left me there. Three days before a truant officer found us. They never found the old man.

L.A. Confidential (film), CC BY-SA 4.0

Jack: Why in the world do you want to go digging any deeper into the Nite Owl Killings, Lieutenant? Ed: Rollo Tomasi. Jack: Is there more to that, or am I supposed to guess? Ed: Rollo… was a purse snatcher. My father ran into him off duty, and he shot my father six times and got away clean. No one even knew who he was. I just made the name up to give him some personality. Rollo Tomasi's the reason I became a cop. I wanted to catch the guys who thought they could get away with it. It was supposed to be about justice. Then somewhere along the way I lost sight of that. Why'd you become a cop? Jack: [long pause] I don't remember.

L.A. Confidential (film), CC BY-SA 4.0

Hilda Lefferts: Was it a rat? Bud White: Yeah. A great big one.

L.A. Confidential (film), CC BY-SA 4.0