Q&A (1990)

Nick Nolte: Mike Brennan

Photos 

Quotes 

• Captain Lt. Michael 'Mike' Brennan, NYPD : Oh, Reilly. You just loved the idea of your father. Now, your father was dirty. He was as dirty as they come. Nothing big, just penny-ante stuff. You know, free meals. A place to coop. For a while, he was a bag man for a pad in the South Bronx. The normal stuff. He took home $100, $150 a week. That's all. But hell, what a cop. Like me, he was the first through the door, the window, the skylight! I mean, he knew there were animals out there! He knew there was a line the niggers, the spics, the junkies, the faggots had to cross to get into people's throats. He was that line. I am that line. And the fucking judges and Jew lawyers, aldermen and guinea DAs are raking it in. We take a fucking hamburger and it's goodbye badge, gun and pension. And all the time, it's our lives that's on the line. It's our widows and our orphans! Now you're a rogue cop, you mick bastard! You went from our side to their side.

• Captain Lt. Michael 'Mike' Brennan, NYPD : You're the whitest black man I know, Chappy.

• Captain Lt. Michael 'Mike' Brennan, NYPD : You fuck with me, better you piss a kidney stone through your hard-on.

• Captain Lt. Michael 'Mike' Brennan, NYPD : [Brennan is telling other cops about an arrest]  l don't know what this guy's on, but he just sits there with a shit-eating grin on his face! So, fuck it. l figure l've got to straighten him out a little bit. So l say, ''You've got a right to remain silent as long as you can stand the pain.'' There's nothing. Not a fucking dent. Not a fucking dent! l decide to fingerprint him in the back room, He pulls away from me, He's a big motherfucker, He's 6'-3" or 6'-4", He starts yelling, ''You fucking harp, this! You fucking harp, that!'' l say, ''Mr. Calabrese, don't upset me now.'' l go to put his hand on the printer. He pulls his hand away he says, ''You can't print me! l'm made!' He throws the fucking ink pad! And l'm standing there and l'm looking at my new light-blue jacket. l've got ink all over my fucking white shirt. He just ruined my fucking jacket. l'm seeing red. l'm pissed, right? l'm going to get that motherfucker! l grab him by the ass and the neck and very quietly l say ''All right, you guinea, you bought it.'' l threw the fucker out the window! Threw him right out the window. He goes right through the wire mesh, out the window. Now remember, this guy's stoned so he thinks he's gonna die. He thinks he's on the second floor, and he goes... Shits his pants. He shit his pants. He wasn't hurt too badly. lt was the ground floor. He had some cuts, that's about it. Now, we gotta go get the guy and he smells. We bring him in the back. l'm going to take him in. l take him back to print him and l make him put his hands down in his pants and he gets some of that shit on his fingers. l say, ''Mr. Calabrese, we ain't got no more ink pads. ''You've got to use your own shit.'' No more out of Mr. fucking Calabrese!

  [All the other cops laugh]