The book is awesome. The movie though, is badly lacking IMO, and totally misses the message of the book. It's not terrible as a movie, it's just bad because it was named after a great book and really didn't do anything to bring the peaceful warrior philospohy into it. So it doesn't really deserve it's title. It was about a guy who basically overcame a physical problem to be able to compete in the olympics, a common done-before kind of story, that brings nothing new to the screen. I guess the movie could have been called anything really. Controversy? I don't see either the book or movie as that. Spiritual, highly so but not really sparking any outrage in the world.
Sorry if i'm ranting a bit, but that book has a special place in my heart and the film kinda skewered it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Way_of_...aceful_Warrior