A few months ago, in the bitter, turbulent aftermath of his Malibu Meltdown, conventional wisdom pronounced a gruesome end to Mel Gibson’s career. According to leading experts in public opinion and pop culture, no one would pay to see his movies after his drunk-driving arrest exposed his loathsome anti-Semitic attitudes.

Amazingly enough, despite some of the worst and most one-sidedly negative publicity endured by a major celebrity since the O.J. trial, Gibson has bounced back with a stunningly strong opening for his latest opus, “Apocalypto.” The film—despite a two-and-a-half hour running time that limited the number of daily showings per-screen—opened in the number one position at the box office with solid earnings of some $15 million. Among other things, “Apocalypto” now stands a real chance of qualifying as the top-grossing Yucatec-language film in history. Since it is also the only Yucatec language film in history, that actually counts as a safe bet.

Concerning the public’s unexpected embrace of all the Mayan-mayhem in Mad Mel’s maelstrom of malevolence, there are only four possible explanations:

1) Most people never heard about his anti-Semitic outburst.

Yeah, and most people never heard about Hurricane Katrina. Who are you kidding?

2) People knew about Mel’s anti-Semitic statements, but they didn’t associate him with this new film.

Right! The film’s been promoted as “Mel Gibson’s APOCALYPTO” since he’s the only recognizable name in any way associated with it.

3) People know about Mel’s anti-Semitic tirade, and they know he’s behind the film, but they embraced the project anyway because they share his bigotry.

Sorry to disappoint the energized Nazis out there, but poll-measured anti-Semitic attitudes continue to register at historic lows in the United States, and the recent election just brought to power two more Jewish Senators (for a total of 14), five more Jewish members of the House, and eight new Jewish chairs of major committees. If people are so anti-Semitic, how come no one (except for proud Jews) has noticed the recent surge in our political power?

4) People know about Mel’s outburst, they know he’s behind the movie, they condemn anti-Semitism, but they went to see “Apocalypto” anyway-- because they know it’s foolish to associate a man’s off-screen failings with the quality of his work.

Number four obviously represents the right answer, and it’s encouraging to see that consumers of American pop culture are smart enough to disassociate private-life foolishness with artistic production.

The fact that Mel’s poppa is a barking lunatic and holocaust denier doesn’t prove that “The Passion of the Christ” was anti-Semitic, any more than Mel’s drunken tirade in Malibu proves anything at all about his new film—which is brilliant, visually intoxicating, electrifying, unforgettable and unspeakably brutal. First rate art emerges all the time from reprehensible individuals—Beethoven was a louse and a grouch in his personal life, Richard Wagner was a committed, shameless Jew-hater, Tolstoy raped literally hundreds (if not thousands) of peasant girls, Picasso used and abused all the women he ever knew, T.S. Eliot drove his first wife, Viv, to the loony bin and also hated Jews, and so on and so forth.

The most serious objection to Gibson’s movie at the moment concerns not his prior expression of anti-Semitism, but the alleged hostility and distortion in his treatment of indigenous peoples. I actually believe Gibson went relatively easy on the ancient Maya – the historical record shows they were even more whacked and bloodthirsty and sadistic than the way they are portrayed on screen.

It takes singular courage for an embattled filmmaker (and celebrity) to defy political correctness by showing the arriving Europeans as rescuers and a source of enlightenment—rather than as predators and despoilers and exploiters of pure, warm-hearted natives.

In any event, his movie pulses and throbs and explodes with a life of its own – like all the most formidable works of art, cinematic and otherwise.

It’s only good news that Mel Gibson (who’s tried hard throughout his career and his personal life to be a decent collaborator and professional, husband and father, whatever his faults and shortcomings and addictions) defied expectations to connect with the public. As usual, the American people showed better judgment and more sophistication than elite opinion ever expected and embraced a fiercely original film despite the controversy surrounding its creator.