History Main / Gangsterland

* ''[[{{Tintin}} Tintin in America]]'' pits Tintin against Chicago gangsters, including an undisguised Al Capone.

* In ''Hoodlum'', in Harlem everybody is affliated with either the black Mafia, or the Jewish mafia, or the Italian mafia...you get the idea.

** This trope is directly invoked by Tsugumi in ''Manga/SoulEaterNot'' when she and Anya get in a fight with Liz and Patti. Tsugumi [[EquippableAlly turns into]] is a halberd, then Patti [[NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight turns into a gun.]]

* ''SinCity'', as the name implies, is a crime-filled cesspool where even the heroes aren't the most law-abiding.

* The unnamed city in ''StreetsOfFire'' is this.

** There are some areas of NYC that are still like this. Brownsville, for example, has a very high crime rate. There's also East New York, south Bronx, and even Coney Island, unbeknownst to many people who live outside of brooklyn.

** In particular Jersey City has historically had a big crime problem. Although the downtown/waterfront area has been gentrified into a yuppie wonderland, the rest of the city has a lot of ghetto areas. The "Greenville" neighborhood is desolate during the day and extremely scary at night. The most frustrating part is that City Hall refuses to acknowledge these realities, and instead claims that crime is [[DamnedWithFaintPraise "at a 30-year low" despite the fact that virtually everyone in the city knows otherwise.]]

* In ''MaximumRide'', Fang, Iggy, and Gazzy visit California. They meet a street gang there called "The Ghosts" who offer them a safehouse. Said gang also helps them out by scaring a hot dog vendor into giving free hot dogs to the mini-Flock and helps them fight the Flyboys.

* During the ColdWar, the Soviet Union used this trope in their anti-American propaganda.

* BoardwalkEmpire, takes place in Atlantic City and the surrounding areas during the 20's.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Mother1}} Earthbound Zero]]'' has the gang-ruled city of [[UsefulNotes/LosAngeles Ellay]]. In the original Japanese version, the city is called [[AlCapone Valentine]].

* ''GangsOfNewYork'' portrays the 1860s equivalent, appearing to be a WretchedHive.
* NYC's Brighton Beach in ''LittleOdessa'': TheMafiya is everywhere, all young men are wannabe hitmen, and nobody bats an eye when a murder occurs in broad daylight.

* The unnamed city that ''AngelsWithDirtyFaces'' takes place in.
* Any "coming of age hood movie" from the early 90s, especially ''Juice'', ''BoyzNTheHood'', ''Menace 2 Society'', and of course ''DontBeAMenaceToSouthCentralWhileDrinkingYourJuiceInTheHood''. Also pretty most anything involving Mexican Americans, such as ''Blood In Blood Out'', ''Film/{{Colors}}'', ''American Me''.

* Creator/TheCoenBrothers' ''MillersCrossing'', where just about everybody (including the non-speaking bit characters) seems to be a gangster or an associate of gangsters.

** In particular Jersey City has historically had a big crime problem. Although the downtown/waterfront area has been gentrified into a yuppie wonderland, the rest of the city has a lot of ghetto areas. The "Greenville" neighborhood is desolate during the day and extremely scary at night. The most frustrating part is that City Hall refuses to acknowledge these realities, and instead claims that crime is [[DamningWithFaintPraise "at a 30-year low" despite the fact that virtually everyone in the city knows otherwise.]]

* Limerick is generally considered this in Ireland; in 2007 nearly 33% of all firearm offences in the entire State took place in the city, in 2008 it offically edged past Glasgow to become the murder capital of Europe and for a while it had the nickname 'Stab City'. Things have improved though as ironically the open feuding between the crime families has seriously weakened them. Parts of north Dublin (like Finglas) are also seen as GangsterLand.
* Brazil as a whole tends to be seen as this, with its vast slums and poverty-stricken neighborhoods that are a good place for gangs to hide.

[[folder:Tabletop Game]]

* [[SouthOfTheBorder Mexico]] is often viewed as this from time to time. Particularly by people caught up in the the current hostilities, which blur the line between a gang war and a civil war!

** So did the Nazis - anti-British propaganda featured tea-drinking UpperClassTwit-types, anti-Soviet propaganda featured savage looking commies...and anti-American propaganda was all Jews and tommy guns.

* Brazil tend to be seen as this, with its vast slums are a good place for gangs to hide.

->--''Theatre/FiniansRainbow''

->In the old days, when you told people in other countries that you were from Chicago, they would say, "Boom-boom! Rat-a-tat-tat!"
->--'''Harold Washington, former Mayor of Chicago, 1987'''

* Visible in the ''JamesBond'' series (novels and early movies) in that while non-American villains were more of the megalomaniacal type, when American villains appeared, they were zoot-suited members of organized crime families.

This might be considered the urban counterpart of {{Eagleland}}, the perception (more so in other countries) of American cities as crime ridden [[ViceCity Vice Cities]]. This has much to do with the export of American films. Supposedly, you will find French people, for instance, believing that [[TheWindyCity Chicago]] is still as it was when Al Capone was alive.

While they all derive from the movies, most versions of Gangsterland do reflect violent periods in the history of various cities -- at least if you turn your head and squint a little. NewYorkCity stand-ins will have violence courtesy of TheMafia, [[TheWindyCity Chicago]] from the Mayor's office and Prohibition-era bootleggers, and UsefulNotes/LosAngeles from [[GangBangers ethnic street gangs]]. Note that the first is organized crime, the second is [[WhiteCollarCrime corrupt]][[DirtyCop ion]] (and organized crime), and the third is street anarchy (though the more successful street gangsters move up into organized crime, or die trying).

* NewYorkCity during [[TheBigRottenApple a period rather close to our times]]. [[http://www.city-data.com/forum/new-york-city/1546030-how-bad-new-york-city-during.html People's]] [[http://www.city-data.com/forum/true-crime/1546155-how-bad-crack-epidemic-nyc.html testimonies]] are a bit chilling...

* The French animated film ''TheTripletsOfBelleville'' has American gangsters as villains. It also invokes {{Eagleland}} in depicting the Statue of Liberty and Americans as obese in contrast to the svelte (if equally unattractively drawn) French characters. Well, according to a newspaper the gangsters are apparently the (nonexistent?) French Mafia, and insofar as Belleville was a parody of America, the actual geography of the city, besides the statue, seems to be inspired by Montreal.

** This trope is directly invoked by Tsugumi in ''Manga/SoulEaterNot'' when she and Anya get in a fight with Liz and Patti, which they find out that means [[NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight having to use a halberd to fight someone with a gun.]]

* Any "coming of age hood movie" from the early 90s, especially ''Juice'', ''BoyzNTheHood'', ''Menace 2 Society'', and of course ''DontBeAMenaceToSouthCentralWhileDrinkingYourJuiceInTheHood''. Also pretty most anything involving Mexican Americans, such as ''Blood In Blood Out'', ''{{Colors}}'', ''American Me''.

* ''KungFuHustle'' features a Chinese equivalent, though its laws of physics overlap with typical kung fu movies and ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes''.

* ''[[{{Tintin}} Tintin in America]]'' pits Tintin against Chicago gangsters, including an undisguised Al Capone. Partially justified as it is set, and was written, in the 1930s.

This might be considered the urban counterpart of {{Eagleland}}, the perception (more so in other countries) of America as crime ridden. This has much to do with the export of American films. Supposedly, you will find French people, for instance, believing that [[TheWindyCity Chicago]] is still as it was when Al Capone was alive.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Mother1}} Earthbound Zero]]'' has the gang-ruled city of [[UsefulNotes/LosAngeles Ellay]]. In the original Japanese version, the city is called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Valentine's_Day_Massacre Valentine]].

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Mother1}} Earthbound Zero]]'' has the gang-ruled city of... [[UsefulNotes/LosAngeles Ellay]]. [[{{Anvilicious}} Subtle.]]
** It gets worse. In the original Japanese version, the city is called ''[[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything Valentine's Day]]''.