john ford, john houston, william wiler, frank kappa, and george stevens. >> these guys were artists,hey wanted to make great movies. they were patriots so they wanted to serve their country, and just as men, they wanted to tell the truth. >> reporter: filmmaker george stevens, jr. remembers when his father signed up to serve. >> he saw the triumph of the will, the film about nuremberg. and the next day he arranged to go in the army. >> reporter: but it was a discovery that stevens made in his father's archive almost 40 years ago that would change forever how we view d-day and the war in europe. some old rolls of film perfectly preserved. >> went and sat by myself in the screening room and up on the screen came this blue sky, ships, barrage balloons in the sky, and i said, my god, that's d-day. >> reporter: a war that was in black and white in our collective memory. >> the full drama of the fateful hour. >> reporter: suddenly in vibrant, startling color. >> you see along the roads going through france, they'd see dead german bodies, and you see the picture, and there's just something