History Film / MalcolmX

* StealthInsult: Malcolm "accidentally" calls his boss "[[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_Charlie Mr. Charlie]]", something that was well known as this towards white men. The man sternly corrects him, "The name is Mr. ''Cooper''". It appears that "Charlie " might actually be the his real first name and he's just chastising him for using it, but the DeathGlare that he gives him indicates that he knows full well what Malcolm was trying to do.

* HalfBreedDiscrimination: In both the book and the film, Malcolm notes that his light-skinned mother (the result of her mother's rape by a white man) ''hated'' her complexion and that one of the reasons she married his father was because he was dark-skinned and wanted to ensure that her children would have some color. Consequently, he felt that she favored his siblings because they were darker than him.

* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Malcolm the gangster wears his hair processed straight. He cuts it into a natural style as he takes on the NOI persona, then grows it out slightly and grows a beard after he leaves the group and takes on a more liberal attitude.

** A young man Malcolm has similarly mentored reveals that he was asked to wire Malcolm's car so that it would explode when he turned the ignition, but refused, as he loved Malcolm too much, thus averting this trope.

* DescriptionCut: Played for very [[BlackComedy dark laughs]] in the scene after Malcolm converts to Islam in prison. He writes a letter to Elijah Muhammad to tell him that he has decided to join the Nation of Islam, and we hear him enthusiastically saying in his [[VoiceoverLetter voiceover]] that he has written to his old friends from Harlem to spread the word of the great Elijah Muhammed. We then cut to West Indian Archie and his cronies reading his letter and laughing uproariously, and then to Shorty reading it in his prison cell, shaking his head dejectedly and muttering that Malcolm has lost his mind.

* BittersweetEnding: Malcolm dies, but his messages - to the Black communities, to the nation and to the world - to fight for civil rights live on.

* DeathByIrony: In the beginning, Malcolm preaches how the white man are the devils and how they're out to get black people. When he has a change of heart, it's people of his own race (and the same group he was such a prominent part of) who do him in.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: The film is very upfront about depicting the casual racism of the first half of the 20th century, but also the Nation of Islam's unapologetically anti-white rhetoric.

* TheCoronerDothProtestTooMuch: The brutal death of Malcolm's father was claimed to be suicide by the insurance company since they can withhold payment on his life insurance policy, even though he'd been hit in the back of the head with a hammer and then pushed in front of a train.

* AnAesop: The film ends with a teacher, Nelson Mandela and Ossie Davis all directly telling the audience that Malcolm X was a great guy, and don't listen to his critics.