Oscar Pistorius: Blade Runner Killer airs November 11th, 8pm on Lifetime.
Oscar Pistorius: Blade Runner Killer is a made for TV movie that’s as terrible as its title. It’s well known that the Lifetime channel’s movies are utter garbage, but this film seems to hit a new low.
Andreas Damm plays Oscar Pistorius, known as “the blade runner” due to the two carbon-fibre blades he used as legs throughout his running career. In 2012, Pistorius became a national news story when he was granted entry into the 2012 Olympics on the South African team. Things were looking great, until his name appeared in headlines once again the following year for a very different reason.
On February 14, 2013, Oscar shot and killed his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, and was later charged with her murder. In 2016 he received a lesser sentence of six years in prison. But the case was not so clear cut. Pistorius maintains his innocence, claiming that he thought Reeva was an intruder. He shot her multiple times through a bathroom door in the middle of the night. Still, prosecutors were able to successfully argue that she was murdered in rage.
Almost everyone involved in the incident has released a statement against the new movie. The victim’s family said back in September that “Any impression that is created that this is the view of June [Steenkamp, Reeva’s mother], or that the movie is endorsed by the Steenkamp family, is untrue and incorrect.” Meanwhile, Pistorius’ family went as far as suing the filmmakers. They claim that “The film was made with a blatant disregard of both the Steenkamp and Pistorius families, as well as complete disregard for Reeva and Oscar.”
In Blade Runner Killer, Pistorius comes off as very controlling and often threatens Steenkamp. And while the actual killing is shown in an ambiguous way, it’s clear Lifetime has no shame in exploiting personal tragedy for ratings. Skip this movie and find something better to do with your time. It shouldn’t be too difficult.
TV and City 