Where Would You Rank This Among Eastwood's Directorial Efforts?

Just saw this again recently. For my $$ High Plains Drifter is near the top of Clint's director/star ventures. For this being only his second outing as a director he seems very assured. He'd obviously picked up a lot from Leone and Don Siegel and was putting what he learned to good use. In the hands of a less capable director, the picture may have lost its haunting and sometimes creepy resonance - which in my mind helps elevate the proceedings. Perhaps it helped that save for a few scenes everything took place in the small town setting, making it easier to manage, no doubt. Would you put this among his best directing efforts? Better than some of his more critically acclaimed works in recent years?


...that's what life was, a long series of things that didn't go down the way you thought they would