Hew *** & Sunder

hew



Y

D



–verb (used with object) 

1. to strike forcibly with an ax, sword, 

or 

other cutting instrument; chop; hack.  



2. to make, shape, smooth, etc., with cutting blows: 



to hew a passage [through] the crowd

to hew a statue [from] marble.  



3. to sever (切斷) (a part) from a whole by means of cutting blows (usually fol. by away, off, out, from, etc.): to hew branches [from] the tree.  



4. to cut down; fell: 



to hew wood

trees hewed down by the storm.  



–verb (used without object) 

5. to strike with cutting blows; cut: He hewed more vigorously each time. 

6. to uphold, follow closely, or conform (usually fol. by to): 



to hew [to] the [tenets] of one's political party.  



—Synonyms 

1. See cut. 2. form.



cleave (劈開), sunder (隔開,切斷), bisect (分為二). Cut, chop, hack, hew refer to giving a sharp blow or stroke. 



　

The outcome is a strangely sundered one, [torn] between the claims of nostalgia and a desperate bid to seduce the YouTube generation. There are thousands of people doing what Mike and Jerry do, but few of them would even know what a video was, preferring to shoot on digital and post their spoofs online. 



This user-generated content, as it is called, marks either a long-overdue democratization of the arts or, if you prefer, a mass proliferation of the mediocre, and Gondry had the opportunity to rise above it by crafting a thoroughly professional fable about amateurs. 



He blew his chance, and most of "Be Kind Rewind" feels as silly and undisciplined as the mini-movies cooked up by its hapless heroes. These, incidentally, we are invited to view in their entirety by visiting the movie’s Web site. Thanks, but I’ll pass.





Cut is a general word for this: to cut the grass. 



To chop is to cut by giving repeated blows with something sharp, as an ax. To chop and to hew are practically interchangeable, 



but hew suggests keeping to a definite purpose: to chop or hew down a tree; to hew out a [clearing]. 



To hack is to cut or chop roughly and unevenly: to hack off a [limb].





　

"It’s a [tall] order, and with Morgan’s script hewing closely to its source, 



Howard responds to it in the manner he knows best: with the most prosaic of visual aesthetics to hand, a doggedly linear approach to storytell[ing] and the spotlight [thrust] squarely on a reliable pair of actors. 



dogged

–adjective 

persistent in effort; stubbornly tenacious: a dogged [worker]. 





The approach only gets him so far. 



Howard’s hands-off direction makes for an oddly bloodless viewing experience, with a lot of talk standing in for any fresh perspective (or frankly, much of a perspective at all) on the events." … 





"Howard is left [a]drift, 



particularly in a sluggish first hour where, with the crucial interviews yet to begin, the historical context is painted in broad, CliffsNotes fashion, with a gallery of reconstructed talking-head interviews and distracting lookalike cameos (There’s Diane Sawyer! There’s Swifty Lazar!) 



in place of significant internal character development."





haggard (face & eyes)

haggle (bargain, mangle)

Meager



maim 

disable, deprive 

maimed in an [accident]

lacerate

cut or tear on flesh or skin

to lacerate an [arm]

mangle

chop, crush or rend as if by machinery

bodies mangled in a [train wreck]

mutilate 

injure the completeness or beauty, the broadest

to mutilate a [statue] a [tree] a [person]

Convulsion