MovieChat Forums > Footloose (1984) Discussion > What if Ariel told Shaw or the Police ab...

What if Ariel told Shaw or the Police about Chuck beating her up?


Just wondering because even though Ariel was wrong and partially at fault as shown here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9p2TehpMr0 when she was beaten up by Chuck, what Chuck did was still considered to be Assault and Battery legally speaking, of course Chuck could argue that she hit him first which was true and then smashed his truck up, he tried to restrain her and lost his temper and hit her.

Personally i think she explained the beating away off camera by pretending that she got into a fight with another girl, one from out of town or somewhere in school, she took a beating but won and got a shiner, at least her father would just yell at her for that, if she told her father Shaw about Chuck beating her up then things would get ugly fast, i know some girls that lied about getting into fights with other girls after being hit by their boyfriends and husbands, saved them reporting it to the Police.

Speaking of which, what would the Police do if Ariel reported Chuck to them? Chuck could say that she attacked him first and destroyed his truck, the damage to the truck and the bill for the damage to be fixed was proof of that, his wounds were also proof of that, i dont condone hitting a woman at all ever unless she has a weapon and is out of control and that is the only way to stop her, Ariel did have a weapon and was out of control but Chuck didng stop or back down so he also crossed a line with provocation.

That makes the whole situation ugly, she probably would have lied about it to her father, because if Ariel ratted Chuck out to Shaw he would report it to the Police, Chuck would tell them the truth and Ariel would get into more trouble or take partial blame, that would make her father the Reverend Shaw look bad and cause problems in the local community, so i understand why she didnt do much on camera.

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Interesting post Matthew. I'm not sure what the police would have done had the assault been reported. As you mentioned, both Ariel and Chuck committed illegal acts, so I would guess both would be charged.


This is a faithful saying...Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

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She is a spoiled American chick, what do U think would have happen.

Spoiler alert for them spoil sports out there! Y'all like spoiled milk, stop crying over it!

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[deleted]

Chuck's DADDY would get him out of it and/or kept it quiet.

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