Barton Fink questions/complaints

[Crow94]

I'm hoping that all of you Yank movie buffs can help a dumb Aussie!!
Okay. Firstly, I just purchased Barton Fink on Region 1 (as its unavailable, naturally, in Region 4. You guys get ALL the best movies!) and I was very disappointed with the picture quality. I found it to be quite blurry compared to all of my other dvds.
Now, here's my dilemma. I have yet to read one review which confirms my observation.
How could this be?
Has anyone else found this problem?
I have a Loewe Aconda, which is normally beautifully sharp and crisp.
And my second question is this:
I noticed that the aspect ratio of this dvd is 1.66:1, which should mean that when I watch it on my widescreen tv, I should have slight black bars on either side, yes?
Well I don't, so what's going on there?
Do I have my tv set wrongly in some way?
Any help on either of these two issues would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

[bob]

Well, it might be a defective disc, that's all I can think of.

To answer your second question, if you have a 4:3 TV, the black vertical bars on the sides will most likely be eliminated by overscan on your TV. For instance, Army of Darkness and A Clockwork Orange are both 1.66:1, but you can't notice the bars on those either.

[Crow94]

Bob, you mentioned a defective disc.
I was under the impression with all things digital that it either works or it doesnt.
What I mean to say is, if it's on the screen, then you're seeing it as intended, but if it's faulty, then it won't play (eg the picture pixelates or freezes or whatever)
Is it possible that one copy of a film on dvd could be slightly blurrier than all the others?
Thanks again in advance.