Two things that always puzzled me;
one is why would Rocco try and kill Hyman Roth which he new (difficult, not impossible) would be a suicide mission when he could have had ANYONE of a number of his men do it?
Also, on the steps of the hospital, after they "scared away" hit men, why does Michael look at Enzo's lighter, after lighting Enzo's cigarette? It seems as if this look was to mean something; a reminder, or a clue, something!?

I don't know about #1, except if Michael gave him the order to kill him then he had no choice.

Michael is actually looking at his hands, realizing how calm he is compared to Enzo's shaking hands.

It is not the lighter he is looking at. It's his hand. The reason Enzo couldn't light the cigarrette is because his hands were shaking too much. But when Michael took it he saw his hands didn't shake. Enzo obviously didn't have the mindset to be a "mafia member" because he didn't have nerves of steel, Michael at that point realized he did. Maybe even realized he was alot more like his father.

WOW! I never thought of that before! Good insight.

I always wondered was rocco was the one to kill to kill roth.Maybe he put the plan together.

A subtheme in GFII is how Neri attempts to push Hagen and Rocco aside to become #2 to Michael. Many examples, but the best one is in the penultimate boat house scene. We see Neri lead the discussion, slouched in a chair, talking about Roth's moves, giving a smug little grin when Michael confronts Tom with his knowledge of another job offer and Tom's mistress (Neri probably was the source of that knowledge). Rocco just stands silently, like the mere bodyguard he was in most of GFII. After Tom objects to Michael's plan to have Roth killed, Michael further humiliates him: "You know, Tom, you surprise me...if there's one certainty...it's that you can kill anyone." The he immediately says, Rocco?" Notice that he didn't say, "Al?" Michael put Rocco on the spot: after Tom's humiliation, what could Rocco say, except, "difficult, not impossible."
So, why did he take on this apparent suicide mission? Because Michael, in effect, left him no choice. And, perhaps, because he saw it as a last-ditch attempt to push ahead of Neri. IMO, it was too late: Michael had decided that Rocco was expendible, Neri wasn't.

I'm not gonna claim that this theory is the correct one, but you could look at it another way:

By asking Rocco if Roth could be killed, Michael may have been acording him more respect than Neri. By asking Rocco, the implication could be that Rocco was the more accomplished hitman, and Michael valued his opinion above Neri's.

At no time did Michael suggest that it had to be Rocco who actually carried out the hit. He was merely asking him if it could be accomplished. It was left up to Rocco to devise the method.

Had he implemented a different plan, other than one with himself as the shooter, and had it failed, Rocco could have always fallen back on his original "Difficult, not impossible" position.("Look, Mike, I tried. But Roth was just too well guarded. Even if I had gone on the hit myself, there was still no way ...")

I agree that Rocco saw his importance in the family diminishing with the rise of Neri, and I think he himself made the decision to be the assassin, figuring that (a) it had a better chance of success that way, and (b) by killing Roth himself, he could regain a measure of respect in Michael's eyes.

I agree with that thought. Remember thatn when Michael killed Sollozzo and McCluskey, it *had* to be him because he was the only person who could reasonably pull it off. I think it was the same thing with the hit on Roth; Rocco was an accomplished soldier with an amazing track record. He chose to handle the hit himself because he knew he could get it done; if he trusted it to buttonman or someone else, there was a chance for failure.

Yes, I totally agree with you on that. Neri had definately become more valuable to Michael.
We know from GFII when Michael talks privately with Tom, he does not trust anyone and explains why to Tom. I always felt that at that final meeting between Mike, Tom, Rocco and Neri, Michael was testing Tom and Rocco's loyalty. He makes it fully clear to Tom that he ( Mike ) is aware of what is going on in Tom's life, the gumare, the job offer, and then after Tom replies to Mike, showing in his reply that he is still loyal, Mike confirms his trust again in Tom when he asks him in ITALIAN if he is staying on. Neri did NOT have to have his loyalty tested openly, as Neri was the one who had probably found out all this information about Tom and in doing so he showed Michael that he was still watching out for him and was loyal to him. Now Rocco, what had he done to show his loyalty to Mike at that point, nothing. So I always felt that by Mike asking the question about hitting Roth directly to Rocco, in a sense he was testing Rocco's loylty and indirectly telling Rocco that this was his chance to show his loyalty to Mike. Let's remember that Mike still suspected someone on the inside, of immedeatly killing the hitman that had tried to kill him (Mike).


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