The Seven Samurai (1954), directed by Akira Kurosawa.
Farming villagers hire masterless samurai to defend them against a gang of marauding bandits.
I won't go on and on about how this is a masterpiece of world cinema, or it's influence and innovations, or the director's skills in storytelling, composition and editing. You can find that on the net and the two commentary tracks on the Blu-ray are a good start. Kurosawa's debt to John Ford's westerns is well known, as is the impact this film had on later American and world action pictures.
My fear is that people who haven't see it will presume, because of all the critical acclaim, that it is a foreign Art Film meant for scholarly analysis rather than enjoyment by the common viewer. Not true! It is an action/adventure story for any popcorn-eating audience. The structures and techniques are there to reward repeat viewers.
Stealing from a earlier review: "There is something exciting about a siege, probably due to childhood nightmares: they're out there, trying to break in and get us." This is more than a simple siege: master Kambei will entrap the enemy one by one and destroy their force piecemeal.
It's also a Japanese variant on the Tough Guy film: see my review of The Professionals (1966) for notes on the genre. The difference this time is the mix of both individual and communitarian elements: the samurai strive to be perfect knights, partly by refinement of their craft, partly by spiritual quest. But they know that good soldiering is disciplined teamwork and they pound on the villagers to make them understand that survival requires the needs of the many to outweigh those of the few.
I first saw a shorter cut of this in a theater. I no longer remember the edits, but now find myself restless during the early scenes where the peasants are miserable at the inn in town. But it soon picks up. I get the most curious sensation of being inside a storybook when watching this: probably due to the black and white imagery suggesting old wood cuts or engravings. Or maybe the mythical settings: big forest trees, mill wheel, bandits hideout.
Notes:
Of those of the seven who die, all are killed by gunfire, a sign that the heroic age is passing.
The farmers get really good at chasing horsemen with bamboo spears.
We have closeups of only three women, analogous to Robert Graves' Triple Goddess: the peasant Maiden who loves a samurai, Rikichi's Wife, captured and kept by the bandits, and the miserable Crone who hacks at a bound bandit with a hoe.
The villagers are afraid the hired samurai will rape or seduce their daughters, but in the single liason it's a farmer's daughter who seduces the young apprentice. Both were virgins.
I can't think of an earlier example in film where this is stated: the night before the big battle when death is likely, both men and women want sex. It happens in villages, it happens in castles.
One of the commentary tracks points out there is more history here than I would have supposed: villagers and samurai really did team up.
If you admire the director, try to find his Something Like an Autobiography, not only a great biography of a 20th century life, but a wonderful reflection of an artist on his craft. Published in 1981, it stops around 1951, before this film. He said he was still trying to make movies in Japan, and telling stories from after that date would offend the wrong people. In fact, I think financing for his later films came from America anyway.
Criterion Blu-ray. It will never win an eye-candy award but is an upgrade over their previous DVD editions, some scenes more than others. Some print damage and fluctuating black levels.