Rocco kills Roth
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — The Godfather: Part II
passedpfv — 9 years ago(January 26, 2017 11:42 PM)
"If history has taught us anything, it's that you can kill anyone."
For years it;s bugged me that Roth was murdered by Rocco Lapone. The reason for this is because Michael's decision to have the act committed by Rocco defies the logic of the entire film including and most important the Senate scene.
In that scene Willie Cicci testifies that there was always a "buffer" between Michael who was giving the order and the button who carried it out. This way the button if caught would not rat on the person who gave the order.
Thus Rocco would have been a terrible choice to assassinate Roth because he likely receive the order from Michael and that order could be traced by Rocco to Michael had Rocco survived. Further, in the Senate scenes the Corleone Crime tree identifies Rocco Lampone as a Caporegime in the Corleone Crime Family. Thus once his corpse is dientified, the FBI can trace Lampone back to the Corleone Crime Family.
I believe Puzo and Coppola chose Lampone for the assassination because he was a convenient character that the audience knew.
Thoughts? -
kag2 — 9 years ago(February 01, 2017 05:05 PM)
Some have suggested that Rocco was on a suicide mission, and that he did the hit on Roth at the airport because he (and possibly his family) was facing retribution from the earlier near-hit on Michael in Nevada. Either Rocco was suspected, or held partly responsible for security lapses.