Apparently Mel does gruesome even better than Tarantino and the other splatter directors, and Hollywood expires from resentful envy.
But I sure like how the "Variety" establishment types get rocked back on their arrogant heels by Mel and his antics. Squeal, whine, squawk. I love it. A subtitled movie about ancient Mayan civilization, no stars (! no pretentious political lectures by Hollywood airhead actresses! ) and it's beating the competition.
The liberal elite and Hollywood don't mind the violence - the reason Apocalypto is attacked is that it destroys the liberal myth of the "Noble Savage". The crimes of which liberals love to blame Western civilization for causing are shown to be practiced widely among the Mayans - slavery, human sacrifice, torture, cannibalism, ageism . . . .
I don't want to give away the details, but what saves the hero of the movie at the end (and the average Mayan) is the arrival of the Spanish on the beach with a cross. Western Christianity saves the Mayans from torture and death by the Mayan cult of death, IMO. A great movie.