Widescreen monitor help!

I'm not sure there is any help for my problem with the widescreen, or if I can even explain it, but here goes ...

I have older DVDs that are not formatted for a widescreen, therefore the scenery is okay, but the actors look terrible. Their faces are too wide so they look scrunched up facing forward and too long noses facing sideward, everything is out of proportion. Bodies are too wide and too short facing front or back, and walking right or left they are too stretched out, with females looking exceptionally female, if you understand without me spelling it out.

So the problem is how can I adjust the widescreen mode to the old, non-widescreen mode. I know how to go to the control panel and change the resolution settings. At present the setting is 1024 x 768. The monitor is a 20" Acer. The manual has 1600 x 900 listed and I tried that, but had even more problems with that setting. Or maybe I should get my husband to trade his old monitor for my new one?

1024x768 should be the correct setting. At that resolution, you should be seeing the movie with black bars on the sides. If not, you may need to go into the monitor's controls and see if you can manually change the aspect ratio from 16:9 to 4:3. Some monitors will allow this, some won't.

Thanks for the help, Bacardi Jim, but going to the monitor's controls seems to be beyond me. I read the manual (my husband printed it out from the disc) and I think I'm supposed to adjust the OSD position, but I can't find the menu key needed to bring up the OSD. Not sure what OSD means but I'm guessing maybe it stands for On Screen Display?
Anyway, we are solving the problem (I hope!) by buying an Acer 19" square monitor (not widescreen) that Tom found online at tiger-something. He says he has bought stuff from them before.
In the meantime, the widescreen will give me my computer-fix so I won't be climbing the wall or space out any farther than I already have.