They will recover just fine - they can take a severe pruning. You might want to tidy up their work so that the end result looks better. They may well put out new shoots in response to the pruning, and hopefully those will have time to harden off before your first freeze.

If that new growth gets killed in the winter freeze, just trim it off come spring. At any rate, these should look good enough come spring 2011.

dad had one that was going on 15 feet.. blocking his driveway.. and cut it 3 inches from the ground.. and without insult to the root system.. within a few years.. it was back to 6 feet .. and ready to be beat back with a stick again ...

i call these type of plants ... 'run them over with the truck' type .... being you can run them over.. and they will be back with a vengeance soon enough ...

as noted above.. if you think it needs some help go back at it ...

a picture would sure help with future suggestions ...

ken