Does the film justify or excuse spousal abuse?

That depends on how you interpret what has happened and how politically correct you want to be. It is
condemned in the dialogue when the Starkeeper asks Billy why he hit Julie. Billy says, "Well, we'd argue,
she'd say this, I'd say that, and she'd be right. So I hit her". The Starkeeper asks him rather sternly, "Are
you sorry you hit her", and Billy answers, "Ain't sorry for anything", making it clear that although Billy has
a bad attitude, the authors of "Carousel" are not praising him for it. (In the 1934 French film of the play
"Liliom", on which "Carousel" is based, Liliom - the Billy Bigelow character - is forced, as punishment, to
watch a film showing him slapping Julie over and over.)
Near the end, Billy slaps his daughter after she refuses to accept the heavenly star he gives her as a
present. She then tells her mother that she did not feel a slap, but instead, a kiss. This is intended to be a
sort of miraculous occurrence, and doesn't mean that the daughter is excusing what he did.The daughter
asks her mother, "Is it possible for someone to hit you, and it not hurt at all?" and Julie answers
forgivingly, "It is possible, dear, for someone to hit you - hit you hard - and it not hurt at all". By saying
this, Julie is declaring that she understands what drove Billy to hit her, not excusing it