Sentence:  The cowboy films , the cops and robbers films , and the slapstick comedy films culminating in an insane chase are not only catering to what critics may assume to <WSD>be</WSD> a vulgar taste for violence ; these films and these sequences are also seeking out - instinctively or by design - the peculiarly cinematic elements of narrative . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)