Sentence:  The cowboy films , the cops and robbers films , and the slapstick comedy films culminating in an insane <WSD>chase</WSD> are not only catering to what critics may assume to be 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:  the act of pursuing in an effort to overtake or capture