Uma Thurman, with the help of stunt double Zoë Bell, gets ready for quite a finale in KILL BILL VOL. 1

KILL BILL VOL. 1 (Quentin Tarantino, 2003)
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Sunday, January 5, free with museum admission, 2:30
Series runs January 4-7
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us

Take a little bit of Sergio Leone spaghetti Westerns, mix in a bunch of Saturday afternoon Kung-Fu Theater, add a touch of Japanese anime and a pinch of Sam Peckinpah’s “Salad Days,” and toss liberally with blood and guts and you’ll end up with Quentin Tarantino’s awesome gorefest about a wronged woman (Uma Thurman as Black Mamba, the Woman with No Name) seeking revenge against the people (Daryl Hannah, Vivica A. Fox, Lucy Liu, and David Carradine) who tried to kill her on her wedding day but made the fatal mistake of not finishing the job, with the only person apparently on her side being Hattori Hanzo, played by the great Sonny Chiba. Monty Python would be proud of all the limbs that are cut off and the comic blood that flows. Yeah, a lot of the movie is Tarantino just showing off, but there are enough gorgeous shots (Thurman fighting in the dark, silhouetted against a blue background; Thurman and Liu battling in the pristine white snow in a Japanese garden) that it is all worth it. And, of course, the soundtrack is just killer, as is Vol. 2, which followed a six months later. Vol. 1 is screening January 5 at 2:30 as part of the Museum of the Moving Image series “Zoë Bell: From Stuntwoman to Star,” which consists of five films in which the New Zealand actress gets to strut her stuff, not only as a stunt double for Thurman in the two Kill Bill films (Vol. 2 is being shown January 5 at 5:30), but also in more regular, credited roles in Drew Barrymore’s Whip It, Tarantino’s grindhouse flick Death Proof, and in the “Fist and Sword” presentation of Josh C. Waller’s Raze, which will be followed by a Q&A with Bell.