justice system. The actions of the Bronson character are dictated by the inability of the police to prevent crime, the preoccupation of the courts with technical rather than real justice, and the cancerous climate of fear in which we find ourselves today. Paul Kersey is no hero. In his pursuit of vengeance he loses the only emotional relationship of his life and by story's end has become as much a victim of crime as the thugs he leaves dead in his wake". Casting Bronson was offered $1.5 million to reprise the role. Jill Ireland was cast in the film because Bronson, her husband, insisted on it. She serves as both the love interest to Paul and the voice of opposition to the death penalty. She was already offered a role in the film's predecessor, Death Wish (1974) but, Charles Bronson refused because he didn't want his wife humiliated and messed around with by the actors who played muggers. After she was hired for this film, Bronson wanted her character not to get raped or killed by the villains of the film. Cannon initially asked Golan to direct the film, but Bronson insisted on instead recruiting Michael Winner, the director of the original. Winner had suffered a downturn in his career since the mid-1970s, with no box-office hit since Death Wish. He agreed to return to the franchise and also took the initiative in revising Engelbach's script. Winner recalled that De Laurentiis was having second thoughts about letting someone else produce the sequel and offered to hire him to do the film for his own production company. Winner refused, and De Laurentiis did not renege on his deal with Cannon. The producer, however, started work on a "clone" of the film. The final result was Fighting Back (1982). Winner said the sequel was pertinent because "mugging is now a bigger issue in America. It's spread to towns where it was not a problem before. In Beverly Hills, instead of talking about other people's failed movies – thank God, something has stopped them at last – they talk about their muggings." The film introduced significant changes for the character of Paul. One involved his modus operandi as a vigilante. In the original film, Paul would shoot and kill every criminal in his vicinity. In the sequel, he is after five specific criminals who are responsible for the death of his daughter. His