Why is this movie controversial?
It’s not. Just Tom Cruise is.
I doubt the thing needs free hype. Tom Cruise tends to star in profitable, and pretty good, films. This one certainly sounds like it will be interesting.
I think the real problem is the media eggheads who just can’t their heads around a complex concept. They have to apply a simplistic label to understand it because they’re stupid. The only people to whom the film might be controversial are neo nazis who disagree with the portrayal of Stauffenberg as a hero. To anyone else, the initial denial of the German government to allow filming in Germany because Tom Cruise is a member of a “cult” is stupid. Whatever one’s opinion of Scientology, to deny its members the ability to work in a country is to deny freedom of religion. If anything was controversial, it was the actions of the German government. But reporters and editors have to label things in order to understand them, so the film is “controversial.”
They wonder why we ignore them. It’s because the impression given by the ignorant who try to talk down to the educated is distasteful at best.