John Wayne condemned the 1969 films Easy Rider and Midnight Cowboy as examples of what he considered “perverted” or corrupt cinema, saying he would leave films of that kind after the first reel. The comments illustrate his opposition to the more sexually explicit, countercultural and socially challenging direction American filmmaking took at the end of the 1960s.

Wayne made the remarks in a 1971 Playboy interview, predicting that audiences would soon tire of such films. Easy Rider followed two motorcyclists travelling across America, while Midnight Cowboy portrayed the friendship between a male sex worker and an ill New York conman; both became influential New Hollywood films, and Midnight Cowboy won the Academy Award for Best Picture.