Nobody lives forever.<p>The other day I was comparing the movie "Forrest Gump" to the TV show "Quantum Leap".<p>Both recapitulate the time period 1950-1985.<p>Forrest Gump is an idiot who stumbles through situations without understanding their significance; somehow he comes out on top of a life put together from the covers of Time magazine. His childhood friend is a victim of drugs, AIDS and the counterculture.<p>Sam Beckett, the hero of Quantum Leap, "leaps" into a crisis in someone's life at the beginning of each episode; his mission to set right what once went wrong.<p>Sam is an expert physicist, pianist, martial artist, and actor. Sam agonizes over the problems of the people he leaps into. But you know he is satisfied, that he finds this mission to be meaningful -- even if he never gets home he's found a purpose for his intellect.<p>When I first saw "Forrest Gump" and the spell it cast over my older family I had the feeling, for the first time in my life, that I could kill someone (Robert Zemeckis, the director) because of the danger of their ideology.<p>I don't feel that way today, actually I like many Zemeckis films, but I was offended at the idea that you could let it all wash over you without experiencing a moment of critical distance.<p>Sam to me is like Faust from the 2nd part of Goethe's play, who escapes Mephistopheles clutches by finding, in the service of other people, a moment that he wishes time would stop.