Google’s definition of revenant is: a person who has returned, supposedly from the dead.

Leonardo DiCaprio received a well-deserved Golden Globe for his extraordinary performance in “The Revenant.” The movie almost had a clean sweep on Sunday, collecting three of the four awards nominated for, including Best Motion Picture Drama and Best Director Alejandro González Iñárritu.

The two and a half hour film was by no surprise lengthy, and feels even lengthier when watching in theatre. A majority of the film is watching DiCaprio struggle to hold on to life, which meant very little dialogue. But, there would be no other way to do it. The little dialogue and human interaction was realistic and set it apart from many other films similar to it.

The director will reveal little to no information about the bear attack DiCaprio experienced within the first half hour of the film, hoping to leave the mystery to the viewer. DiCaprio was really thrown about as if he was being attacked by a real bear, but says it was not the hardest thing he had to do while filming.

The acting in the movie was everything it was expected to be. Tom Hardy in particular showing an excellent, maybe best in his career, performance as the once ally but soon to be enemy of DiCaprio. The diction required for the role he portrayed was similar to the southern one he used in the 2012 film “Lawless,” but without a doubt far from his actual accent which is from London.

A pleasant surprise, for me at least, was the appearance of Will Poulter, the “We are the Millers” star. Prior to the film, I was under the impression that he could not play a serious role. But he used the harsh conditions to his advantage and gave a memorable and mentionable interpretation of his character as the young fur trapper, Bridger.

Without wanting to give too much away, the film was much more suspenseful than originally expected. While watching, you grip your seat for at least two hours, hoping any of these men come out of this adventure alive.

DiCaprio may have won because the Academy recognized his extreme efforts, such as eating an animal’s real liver and sleeping in a real animal carcass, but they may have recognized Iñárritu’s ambition, by pulling off this entire film by only using natural light.

Iñárritu brought the cast and crew to the mountains of Canada and Patagonia, which is near the South Pole.

“Obviously the story we were telling was about these men 200 years ago living in these landscapes…so what other choice should I have made?”  Iñárritu told abcnews.com. “It’s funny that people say, ‘And you shot it in the real mountains with real rivers?’ Yes. ‘And you shot it with natural light?’ Yes.”

Because he chose to shoot only in natural light, filming time was sacred and scarce. On some days the sun would go down at 3 p.m., and would often leave roughly 90 minutes of time to get the shot they needed for the day.

According to the New York Times, the cost to make “The Revenant” was much more than expected- estimated at about $60 million initially, the final cost resulted in $135 million.

Iñárritu began with approximately 300 actors for this film. He explained to the New York Times that he did have to fire people along the way, for he felt they might jeopardize the movie for the rest of the cast.

The opening scene itself used 200 extras and a month’s worth of rehearsals but was only about eight minutes long.

Although the movie had only spurts of action, it seemed violent and gut wrenching. Watching the actors experience what they did, you hope on your life you never have to yourself.

This film is unlike any other film I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing and would highly recommend it.