A subtheme of II is how Neri pushes past Rocco, and tries to push past Tom, to be Michael's second in command. Remember: Rocco was Clemenza's protege, Neri was Michael's. By the end of II, Rocco was, essentially, obsolete. So Michael, the master manipulator, set Rocco up in that boathouse scene. After humiliating Tom and stating that "history teaches us that anyone can be killed," he immediately turns to Rocco--not Neri. Now Rocco was on the spot. He answered, "Difficult, not impossible." I'm guessing that he saw his "volunteering" to whack Roth as a kind of hail-Mary pass--a last chance to get back into Michael's good graces, despite the overwhelming certainty that it was a suicide mission.
I should have proofread that first post..
Very insightful stuff. Rocco always intrigued me, I knew there was something more beneath the surface. But I'm still unclear on this. Rocco by now is obsolete, yes. But was it Michael's intentions to send him on a suicide mission? Or did he choose Rocco once he volunteered, since dead or alive, he wasn't worth much to Michael.
