Yojimbo The Bodyguard - (Akira Kurosawa;1961;Japan)
A ronin comes to a town where he plays the two rival gangs against each other.
Kurosawa does for the samurai what Leone would later do for the cowboys. I can't tell you whether this or A Fistful of Dollars is better, but both bring us personifications of cool. This film also has some subtle humor here and there that lightens the mood. You can see some things that would later inspire Lucas and Tarantino. It's overrated at IMDB but nevertheless this turns out to be a great samurai film. Toshirô Mifune makes his character very likable with his performance.